Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
by daynaheronxx
Summary: The very first order sit down to and read about Lily and James's son Harry Potter. People reading include Molly and Arther Weasley, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Moody, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, Aberforth, Alice and Frank Longbottom. And others ...
1. The Dark Lord Ascending

Everyone was sitting round the table waiting for Dumbledore to tell them what was so important; it was the Order, the very first order. Lily and James where alive, and had been invited, every single order person had been invited expect one. Peter Pettigrew. While everyone sat down, Sirius Black asked why they were there but only got told they would be informed in a minute. "Okay, now I want to share with you something. I have a book from the future. Nearly Seventeen years in the future." He waited for anyone to say anything but they didn't; they just stared at him in disbelief. "I also know who the spy is, can anyone guess?"

It was Remus Lupin that answered "Peter" with a little doubt.

"Remus don't be stupid. Peter wouldn't hurt a fly; actually he can't hurt a fly." James replied to his friend two seat over.

"I'm not being stupid, I'm being logical. Peter is the only one not here." With a raised eyebrow.

James noticed that was true. But it couldn't be Peter. Peter was harmless; he was a little stumpy man. Who was clueless but loyal? He was there friend. Why would Remus even think that? That was completely stupid suggestion but somehow he felt uneasy. The whole order had their eyes on the pair of friends. So James asked Dumbledore if it was true. And he agreed it was, James didn't know what to do, and he was in shock. No. It couldn't be Peter. But it was, he knew deep down that it was Peter who was the spy, the spy for nearly a year now. He felt so sick, and angry, and betrayed. He had been betrayed by one of his best friends. The whole Order had been betrayed. He didn't know what to do, that's when Lily spoke up, to break the silence "Sir, you said you had a book from the future, nearly seventeen years? How is that possible?" She said politely but you could hear her disbelief coming though.

"Yes Mrs. Potter, you're correct. But sadly I do not know how it is possible. But I would like to read it. Wouldn't you? I have it with me. It's about Harry Potter."

There was a shocked silence. Harry. Little Harry Potter. Lily and James Potter's son. He had a book about him. No that couldn't be true but then they saw Dumbledore pull out a book.

"Would you like me to read it?" he suggested to the stunned faces all around him. Most nodded but some didn't move at all. "Mr. and Mrs. Potter, do you think it would be ok?" He asked the two who seemed to be in shock.

"Um… Yeah … I think so. How about it, Lils?" He asked his wife. She just nodded and swallowed.

"Well ok then. Chapter one."

**The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.**

**"News?" asked the taller of the two.**

**"The best," replied Severus Snape.**

"Severus" Lily whispered weakly but only James, Sirius and Remus heard. And James hugged her tightly.

**The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.**

**"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight. "It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?"**

**Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the men's way. Neither of them broke step: In silence both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.**

"I bet the dark mark actives it." muttered Moody.

**The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a rustle somewhere to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again pointing it over his companion's head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.**

**"He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks ..." Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.**

"Malfoy Manner" spat Sirius. Others nodded along with him.

**A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.**

**The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, and then Snape turned the bronze handle.**

**The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, **

"That is disgusting, the poor person" mumbled Molly Weasley.

"I wonder who it is" Arthur Weasley, her husband said louder.

**and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight were looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.**

**"Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."**

**The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.**

"He's still around?" James asked

"And oh Merlin what happened to him? That is not what he looks like now? He doesn't even sound human" asked Sirius. Nobody answered but they looked disgusted.

**"Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. "Yaxley - beside Dolohov."**

"His right hand man? Wonder what he did to get in his good books." Marlene McKinnon added harshly

**The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.**

**"So?"**

"So what?" Sirius remarked heavily sarcastic. Some people turned round to him to tell him to shut up but he just shrugged it off.

**"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."**

"Why does he want to know that? Dumbledore why does he want to know about Harry?" Lily asked frantic.

Dumbledore smiled sadly and answered "I don't know, Mrs. Potter, I have not gone though this yet."

**The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened; others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.**

**"Saturday ... at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.**

Some people shuddered at the thought.

**"Good. Very good. And this information comes…"**

**"- from the source we discussed," said Snape.**

"Oh, so we have another spy now… Great just bloody great" Sirius said sarcastically. He just couldn't help it.

**"My Lord."**

**Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him.**

**"My Lord, I have heard differently."**

**Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."**

"Seventeen… he's only seventeen and they are after him." Lily croaked faintly. Some people looked at her sympathetically. Especially Molly, she would be the same if it was her son.

**Snape was smiling.**

Sirius and James shuddered at that.

**"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."**

**"I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.**

**"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."**

"Oh, please don't. That's all we need. Him to have more power." Elphias Doge shuddered at the thought.

**"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.**

**Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.**

"I feel sick. What if that one of us?" Dorcas Meadowes asked the rest.

"Don't say that Dorcas just don't" Dedalus Diggle nearly yelled. That thought was too bad.

**"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy"**

**Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.**

**"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"**

**"At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."**

"Great." Moody muttered, he didn't know what they wanted with the boy or why we were being so important with him, but he knew he needed this boy.

**"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"**

**Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.**

**"My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have with difficulty, and after great effort succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."**

**Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.**

"He's only small in the department just now, he just have got better."

**"It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."**

"Scimgeour's Minister? What happened to Barty Crouch?" Sirius wondered

**"Yes - my Lord, that is true - but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."**

**"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."**

"Oh no, I think that will be easy." Remus had to mention, which got him a few glares.

**"We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. "We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."**

**"He will not do either," said Snape. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."**

"Good." Grunted Aberforth Dumblerdore.

**"All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."**

"This is going to be hard." Remus muttered but some people still heard and told him to shut up.

**Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."**

"How many times has my son faced him?" James asked anxiously

"I don't know, Prongs, but it looks like Voldemort is trying to cover up his mistakes." This did not make James any calmer.

**The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry Potter's continued existence. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.**

Some groaned. Not wanting to hear this.

**"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be."**

Lily was now sobbing, she didn't know what had happened but she didn't want her little baby boy to die. No it wasn't aloud.

**At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.**

**"Wormtail," said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"**

"Wormtail" Sirius, Remus and James spat in union.

**"Yes, m-my Lord," gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had been sitting so low in his chair that it appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied. Now he scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room, leaving nothing behind him but a curious gleam of silver.**

**"As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter."**

"Why does he need a wand? Doesn't he have one?" Emmeline Vance asked suddenly. All she got in reply was shrugs.

**The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.**

"Basically he did." Sirius said trying to lighten the mood, which never worked.

**"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see ... Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."**

"Ha ha ha" Sirius said cheerfully. He hated the Malfoy. Then Arther joined in on the laughter "He deserves it."

**Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.**

**"My Lord?"**

**"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."**

**"I ..."**

**Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.**

**"What is it?"**

**"Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.**

**"And the core?"**

**"Dragon … dragon heartstring."**

**"Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously.**

"opps" was said a lot around the table. Some just chuckled

**"Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?**

**Some of the throng sniggered.**

**"I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late ... What is it about my presence in your home that displaces you, Lucius?", **

**"Nothing … nothing my Lord!"**

**"Such lie's Lucius ..."**

**The soft voice seemed to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath the table.**

"Snake" some whispered.

**The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders: its neck the thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking. Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy.**

**"Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many?"**

"Return? What does he mean return Albus?" Minerva McGonagall asked suddenly

"It seems Lord Voldemort, was gone for a while Minerva, I don't know why but that's how it seems." Albus replied looking thoughtful

**"Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it … we do."**

"Anyone else notice the slip up?" Some nodded "Good"

**To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.**

**"My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted with emotion, "it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."**

**She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.**

"I think I'm going to be sick, Bellatrix and … and … oh I just don't want to imagine it."

**"No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."**

**Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight.**

"Oh Merlin stop, please?" Sirius said looking rather green

**"My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"**

**"No higher pleasure ... even compared with the happy event that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"**

**She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.**

**"I don't know what you mean, my Lord."**

**"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."**

Everyone stared at Remus in shock. He looked wide-eyed at Dumbledore "A-ar-are you sure?" he asked in a disbelief, no, Dora is only a 9 year old right now. No this can't be happening.

"Yes, Remus." Dumbledore smiled. Next minute James and Sirius was in fits of laughter. Everyone stared at them, they didn't know what was so funny.

"Isn't that the-" but she got cut off by Remus "Yes, Lily. Please keep reading Sir." Near enough begging. No one knew why Sirius and James were still laughing beyond stop.

**There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The giant snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.**

**"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth. "We - Narcissa and I - have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."**

That stops them. They were finding Remus marrying a 9 year old funny but that was too far on the matter.

**"What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"**

Remus looked very, very pale. "Shut up you idiot." Sirius snarled

**The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.**

**"Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."**

**And the laughter died at once.**

"Of course it did." James said very irritated

**"Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring, "You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."**

**"Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. "At the first chance!"**

"She's going to try and kill her own niece. What a bitch." Sirius seriously hated her.

**"You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world ... we shall cut away the cancer that infects us until only those of the true blood remain ..."**

**Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds**.

"No" all the woman in the room muttered faintly.

**"Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.**

"Oh no" James gasped, it must be someone he knew.

**Snape raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me**!"

Most of the woman in the room sobbed, that just wasn't fair.

**"Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.**

**"And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. Now that the woman had woken, he seemed unable to look at her anymore.**

"I wonder who it is then?" a lot of people muttered confused, why would Severus and Draco Malfoy know?

**"But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."**

Some gasped, but Minerva gasped "No, No, No" a few more times.

**There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth cackled.**

**"Yes ... Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles ... how they are not so different from us ..."**

**One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again.**

"She never taught him? So why is she turning to him?" Lily asked curious.

**"Severus ... please ... please ..."**

"Stop, please, please, stop begging." Minerva sobbed. She didn't want her friend to beg.

**"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defense of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance ... She would have us all mate with Muggles ... or, no doubt, werewolves ..."**

Remus laughed at how he added that part in.

**Nobody laughed this time. There was no mistaking the anger and contempt in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from him again.**

"That sick, idiot, bastard." Lily muttered with a hardened expression.

**"Avada Kedavra"**

Some groaned, some mad angry, outraged noises. She didn't deserve to die like that.

**The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto the floor.**

"She must have taught him, he must still be in school." Remus announced to those who didn't know.

**"Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the great snake swayed and slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood.**

"That is so, so sick." Sirius moaned. He thought he was going to actually be sick.


	2. IN MEMORIAM

Everyone wanted to have something to eat, so after a little snack they made their way to the table and wait for Albus to begin "Chapter two." Albus announced

**Harry was bleeding. **

"Oh honey, go get cleaned up" Lily said smoothly as if Harry could hear her, some people exchanged amused looks.

**Clutching his right hand in his left and swearing under his breath, he shouldered open his bedroom door. There was a crunch of breaking china. He had trodden on a cup of cold tea that had been sitting on the floor outside his bedroom door.**

**"What the -?"**

"Harry!" Lily scolded

"Lils, he can't hear you." James said amused

"Oh … oh yeah … you're right." She looked down embarrassed

**He looked around, the landing of number four, Privet Drive, was deserted. **

But her and James heads shoot straight up at that, Why was he at Privet Drive? With those people? Maybe they had changed and he was he's just visiting? Yeah that was it. _Hopefully._

**Possibly the cup of tea was Dudley's idea of a clever booby trap. Keeping his bleeding hand elevated, Harry scraped the fragments of cup together with the other hand and threw them into the already crammed bin just visible inside his bedroom door. Then he tramped across to the bathroom to run his finger under the tap.**

**It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic...but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him. He had never learned how to repair wounds, and now he came to think of it particularly in light of his immediate plans this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education.**

"What immediate plans?" Sirius asked curiously. No one knew but they were just as curious.

** Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.**

"Temper, temper" Sirius teased, "Wonder were he gets that." Some people chuckled as Lily blushed.

**Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago. At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general**

**debris at the bottom old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fit. Minutes previously, Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand, and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood.**

**He now proceeded a little more cautiously. Kneeling down beside the trunk again, he groped around in the bottom and, after retrieving an old badge that flickered feebly between SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY and POTTER STINKS,**

"What's that about? Potter does not stink." James exclaimed.

"Ok, whatever you say." Lily whispered amused.

** a cracked and worn-out Sneakoscope, and a gold locket inside which a note signed R.A.B. had been hidden, he finally discovered the sharp edge that had done the damage. He recognized it at once. It was a two-inch-long fragment of the enchanted mirror that his **

Albus paused, and looked at the little group of friends, and smiled apologetically. Then continued.

**dead godfather, Sirius, had given him. **

"What?" James whispered. No. It was not true. No, none of it.

"No, that's not true sir." Remus said louder than James but still the croaked and hallow.

Everyone was in shock, Sirius. Sirius Black. Their friend died. They did not know what to make of it.

"Sir, can you please continue. Please." He just said, he looked quite sad and stunned but his voice was clear as ever and emotionless.

**Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest,**

**but nothing more remained of his godfather's last gift except powdered glass, which clung to the deepest layer of debris like glittering grit.**

**Harry sat up and examined the jagged piece on which he had cut himself, seeing nothing but his own bright green eye reflected back at him. Then he placed the fragment on top of that morning's Daily prophet, which lay unread on the bed, and attempted to stem the sudden upsurge of bitter memories, the stabs of regret and of longing the discovery of the broken mirror had occasioned, by attacking the rest of the rubbish in the trunk.**

"Harry, calm down." Sirius was now talking in the soothing voice like Lily, but everyone was too shocked to notice.

**It took another hour to empty it completely, throw away the useless items, and sort the remainder in piles according to whether or not he would need them from now on. His school and Quidditch robes, cauldron, parchment, quills, and most of his textbooks were piled in a corner, to be left behind. He wondered what his aunt and uncle would do with them; burn them in the dead of night, probably, as if they were evidence of some dreadful crime.**

"Why is he there? Where am I and James?" Lily exclaimed

"Lils, I think we are-" but he got cut off by her. "No, don't you dare say it. Don't say it unless the book says it's true."

** His Muggle clothing, Invisibility Cloak,**

"Good, he got that."James proudly pointed out.

** potion-making kit, certain books, the photograph album Hagrid had once given him, a stack of letters, and his wand had been repacked into an old rucksack. In a front pocket were the Marauder's Map **

"Yes!" All three Marauders yelled happily.

**and the locket with the note signed R.A.B. inside it. **

Sirius thought about those letters. R.A.B that was his brothers initials, but why it was there he didn't know. He decided not to mention it out load just yet.

**The locket was accorded this place of honor not because it was valuable, in all usual senses it was worthless but because of what it had cost to attain it.**

**This left a sizable stack of newspapers sitting on his desk beside his snowy owl, Hedwig: one for each of the days Harry had spent at Privet Drive this summer.**

**He got up off the floor, stretched, and moved across to his desk. Hedwig made no movement as he began to flick through newspapers, throwing them into the rubbish pile one by one. The owl was asleep or else faking; she was angry with Harry about the limited amount of time she was allowed out of her cage at the moment.**

"She sounds nice." Lily giggled. Everyone smiled, an owl with attitude.

**As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular issue that he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts. At last he found it. Turning to page ten, he sank into his desk chair and reread the article he had been looking for.**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE REMEMBERED**

Every single person at the table gasped. No. Too many people were dead. This wasn't aloud to happen, it wasn't fair. They lost everyone because of some monstrous man. Dumbledore continued to read as if it had no effect to him.

**By Elphias Doge**

Elphias smiled to himself. He was proud he done an article.

**I met Albus Dumbledore at the age of eleven, on our first day at Hogwarts. Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly due to the fact that we both felt ourselves to be outsiders. I had contracted dragon pox shortly before arriving at school, and while I was no longer contagious, my pock-marked visage and greenish hue did not encourage many to approach me. For his part, Albus had arrived at Hogwarts under the burden of unwanted notoriety. Scarcely a year previously, his father, Percival, had been convicted of a savage and well-publicized attack upon three young Muggles.**

**Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who was to die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; on the contrary, when I plucked up courage to ask him, he assured me that he knew his father to be guilty. Beyond that, Dumbledore refused to speak of the sad business, though many attempted to make him do so. Some, indeed, were disposed to praise his father's action and assumed that Albus too was a Muggle-hater. They could not have been more mistaken: As anybody who knew Albus would attest, he never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Indeed, his determined support for Muggle rights gained him many enemies in subsequent years.**

**In a matter of months, however, Albus's own fame had begun to eclipse that of his father. By the end of his first year he would never again be known as the son of a Muggle-hater, but as nothing more or less than the most brilliant student ever seen at the school. Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me later in life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.**

**He not only won every prize of note that the school offered, he was soon in regular correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day, including Nicolas Flamel, the celebrated alchemist; Bathilda Bagshot, the noted historian; and Adalbert Waffling, the magical theoretician. Several of his papers found their way into learned publications such as Transfiguration Today, Challenges in Charming, and The Practical Potioneer. Dumbledore's future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister of Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions.**

**Three years after we had started at Hogwarts, Albus's brother, Aberforth, arrived at school. They were not alike: Aberforth was never bookish and, unlike Albus, preferred to settle arguments by dueling rather than through reasoned discussion. However, it is quite wrong to suggest, as some have, that the brothers were not friends. They rubbed along as comfortably as two such different boys could do. In fairness to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in Albus's shadow cannot have been an altogether comfortable experience. Being continually outshone was an occupational hazard of being his friend and cannot have been any more pleasurable as a brother. When Albus and I left Hogwarts we intended to take the then-traditional tour of the world together, visiting and observing foreign wizards, before pursuing our separate careers. However, tragedy intervened. On the very eve of our trip, Albus's mother, Kendra, died, leaving Albus the head, and sole breadwinner, of the family. I postponed my departure long enough to pay my respects at Kendra's funeral, then left for what was now to be a solitary journey. With a younger brother and sister to care for, and little gold left to them, there could no longer be any question of Albus accompanying me.**

**That was the period of our lives when we had least contact. I wrote to Albus, describing, perhaps insensitively, the wonders of my journey, from narrow escapes from chimaeras in Greece to the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists. His letters told me little of his day-to-day life, which I guessed to be frustratingly dull for such a brilliant wizard. Immersed in my own experiences, it was with horror that I heard, toward the end of my year's travels, that another tragedy had struck the Dumbledores: the death of his sister, Ariana.**

**Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers. All those closest to Albus ¨C and I count myself one of that lucky number - agree that Ariana's death, and Albus's feeling of personal responsibility for it (though, of course, he was guiltless), left their mark upon him forevermore.**

**I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older person's suffering. Albus was more reserved than before, and much less light-hearted. To add to his misery, the loss of Ariana had led, not to a renewed closeness between Albus and Aberforth, but to an estrangement. (In time this would lift - in later years they reestablished, if not a close relationship, then certainly a cordial one.) However, he rarely spoke of his parents or of Ariana from then on, and his friends learned not to mention them.**

**Other quills will describe the triumphs of the following years. Dumbledore's innumerable contributions to the store of Wizarding knowledge, including his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, will benefit generations to come, as will the wisdom he displayed in the many judgments while Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. They say, still, that no Wizarding duel ever matched that between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. Those who witnessed it have written of the terror and the awe they felt as they watched these two extraordinary wizards to battle. Dumbledore's triumph, and its consequences for the Wizarding world, are considered a turning point in magical history to match the introduction of the International Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.**

**Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain; he could find something to value in anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched, and I believe that his early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss his friendship more than I can say, but my loss is nothing compared to the Wizarding world's. That he was the most inspiring and best loved of all Hogwarts headmasters cannot be in question. He died as he lived: working always for the greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day I met him.**

No one spoke though the article, but Albus smiled at Elphias, "Thank you Elphias." And continued to read.

**Harry finished reading, but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar, kindly smile, but as he peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.**

**He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all. Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old. The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione or a friendly Blast-Ended Skrewt.**

**He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements. No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry's past, Harry's future, Harry's plans... **

"Sir, it sounds that you and Harry were quite close." Remus pointed out.

"Yes, Mr Lupin, it does seem like that doesn't it. I just don't know why" He said thoughtfully**.**

**and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, **

"Why? How is it dangerous and so uncertain?" Lily said nearly close to tears, how little boy, What was so different about him that he had to go through all of this.

"I don't know, I truly don't Mrs Potter. I think the book will tell in time though." He smiled sadly.

**that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, even though the only personal question he had ever asked his headmaster was also the only one he suspected that Dumbledore had not answered honestly:**

**"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**

**"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**

A few people laughed at that. No, Dumbledore wasn't being honest.

**After several minutes' thought, Harry tore the obituary out of the Prophet, folded it carefully, and tucked it inside the first volume of Practical Defensive Magic and its Use against the Dark Arts. Then he threw the rest of the newspaper onto the rubbish pile and turned to face the room. It was much tidier. The only things left out of place were today's Daily Prophet, still lying on the bed, and on top of it, the piece of broken mirror.**

**Harry moved across the room, slid the mirror fragment off today's Prophet, and unfolded the newspaper. He had merely glanced at the headline when he had taken the rolled-up paper from the delivery owl early that morning and thrown it aside, after noting that it said nothing about Voldemort. Harry was sure that the Ministry was leaning on the Prophet to suppress news about Voldemort. It was only now, therefore, that he saw what he had missed.**

**Across the bottom half of the front page a smaller headline was set over a picture of Dumbledore striding along, looking harried:**

**DUMBLEDORE THE TRUTH AT LAST?**

**Coming next week, the shocking story of the flawed genius considered by many to be the greatest wizard of his generation. Striping away the popular image of serene, silver-bearded wisdom, Rita Skeeter reveals the disturbed childhood, the lawless youth, the life-long feuds, and the guilty secrets that Dumbledore carried to his grave, WHY was the man tipped to be the Minister of Magic content to remain a mere headmaster? WHAT was the real purpose of the secret organization known as the Order of the Phoenix? HOW did Dumbledore really meet his end?**

"Sir, what does all of that mean?" Lily asked seriously, she didn't have a clue how to answer any of those questions.

Dumbledore had a feeling what was coming up, he glanced at Aberforth, who was looking at him with the same sadness he felt. A few people noticed and decided not to comment.

**The answers to these and many more questions are explored in the explosive new biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, by Rita Skeeter, exclusively interviewed by Berry Braithwaite, page 13, inside.**

**Harry ripped open the paper and found page thirteen. The article was topped with a picture showing another familiar face: a woman wearing jeweled glasses with elaborately curled blonde hair, her teeth bared in what was clearly supposed to be a winning smile, wiggling her fingers up at him. Doing his best to ignore this nauseating image, Harry read on.**

**In person, Rita Skeeter is much warmer and softer than her famously ferocious quill-portraits might suggest. Greeting me in the hallway of her cozy home, she leads me straight into the kitchen for a cup of tea, a slice of pound cake and, it goes without saying, a steaming vat of freshest gossip.**

**"Well, of course, Dumbledore is a biographer's dream," says Skeeter. "Such a long, full life. I'm sure my book will be the first of very, very many."**

**Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred-page book was completed in a mere four weeks after Dumbledore's mysterious death in June. I ask her how she managed this superfast feat.**

**"Oh, when you've been a journalist as long as I have, working to a deadline is second nature. I knew that the Wizarding world was clamoring for the full story and I wanted to be the first to meet that need."**

**I mention the recent, widely publicized remarks of Elphias Doge, Special Advisor to the Wizengamot and longstanding friend of Albus Dumbledore's, that "Skeeter's book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card."**

**Skeeter throws back her head and laughs.**

**"Darling Dodgy! I remember interviewing him a few years back about merpeople rights, bless him. Completely gaga, seemed to think we were sitting at the bottom of Lake Windermere, kept telling me to watch out for trout."**

**And yet Elphias Doge's accusations of inaccuracy have been echoed in many places. Does Skeeter really feel that four short weeks have been enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore's long and extraordinary life?**

**"Oh, my dear," beams Skeeter, rapping me affectionately across the knuckles, "you know as well as I do how much information can be generated by a fat bag of Galleons, a refusal to hear the word 'no,' and a nice sharp Quick-Quotes Quill! People were queuing to dish the dirt on Dumbledore anyway. Not everyone thought he was so wonderful, you know - he trod on an awful lot of important toes. But old Dodgy Doge can get off his high hippogriff, because I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for, one who has never spoken in public before and who was close to Dumbledore during the most turbulent and disturbing phase of his youth."**

**The advance publicity for Skeeter's biography has certainly suggested that there will be shocks in store for those who believe Dumbledore to have led a blameless life. What were the biggest surprises she uncovered, I ask?**

**"Now, come off it. Betty, I'm not giving away all the highlights before anybody's bought the book!" laughs Skeeter. "But I can promise that anybody who still thinks Dumbledore was white as his beard is in for a rude awakening! Let's just say that nobody hearing him rage against You-Know-Who would have dreamed that he dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth! And for a wizard who spent his later years pleading for tolerance, he wasn't exactly broad-minded when he was younger! Yes, Albus Dumbledore had an extremely murky past, not to mention that very fishy family, which he worked so hard to keep hushed up."**

**I ask whether Skeeter is referring to Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, whose conviction by the Wizengamot for misuse of magic caused a minor scandal fifteen years ago.**

**"Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dung heap," laughs Skeeter. "No, no, I'm talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, worse even than the Muggle-maiming father - Dumbledore couldn't keep either of them quiet anyway, they were both charged by the Wizengamot. No, it's the mother and the sister that intrigued me, and a little digging uncovered a positive nest of nastiness - but, as I say, you'll have to wait for chapters nine to twelve for full details. All I can say now is, it's no wonder Dumbledore never talked about how his nose got broken."**

**Family skeletons notwithstanding, does Skeeter deny the brilliance that led to Dumbledore's many magical discoveries?**

**"He had brains," she concedes, "although many now question whether he could really take full credit for all of his supposed achievements. As I reveal in chapter sixteen, Ivor Dillonsby claims he had already discovered eight uses of dragon's blood when Dumbledore 'borrowed' his papers."**

**But the importance of some of Dumbledore's achievements cannot, I venture, be denied. What of his famous defeat of Grindelwald?**

**"Oh, now, I'm glad you mentioned Grindelwald," says Skeeter with such a tantalizing smile. "I'm afraid those who go dewy-eyed over Dumbledore's spectacular victory must brace themselves for a bombshell - or perhaps a Dungbomb. Very dirty business indeed. All I'll say is, don't be so sure that there really was a spectacular duel of legend. After they've read my book, people may be forced to conclude that Grindelwald simply conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and came quietly!"**

**Skeeter refuses to give any more away on this intriguing subject, so we turn instead to the relationship that will undoubtedly fascinate her readers more than any other.**

**"Oh yes," says Skeeter, nodding briskly, "I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship. It's been called unhealthy, even sinister. Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy's best interests - well, we'll see. It's certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."**

**I ask whether Skeeter is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned.**

**"Oh, yes, we've developed a closer bond," says Skeeter. "Poor Potter has few real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moments of his life - the Triwizard Tournament. I am probably one of the only people alive who can say that they know the real Harry Potter."**

**Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?**

**"Well, I don't want to say too much - it's all in the book - but eyewitnesses inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. Is everything as it seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide ¨C once they've read my book."**

**On that intriguing note, I take my leave. There can be no doubt that Skeeter has quilled an instant bestseller. Dumbledore's legion of admirers, meanwhile, may well be trembling at what is soon to emerge about their hero.**

Everyone was silent until Dumbledore said calmly "Most of that was lies." And they just let it go, but they couldn't help thinking what bit of that was true? What bit isn't a bunch of lies.

**Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued to stare blankly at the page. Revulsion and fury rose in him like vomit; he balled up the newspaper and threw it, with all his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his overflowing bin.**

**He began to stride blindly around the room, opening empty drawers and picking up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing, as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head: An entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship... It's been called unhealthy, even sinister... He dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth... I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for...**

**"Lies!" Harry bellowed, and through the window he saw the next-door neighbor, who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously.**

"There is is again Lils, temper, temper." Sirius teased trying to lighten the mood and it worked.

**Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him...**

"it sounds like he respects you a lot Albus." Minerva said

Dumbledore nodded "Yes, Yes Minerva. It seems so."

**A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing: There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him.**

**He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.**

"Do you think he's handled death a lot?" Lily asked uncertain, hoping to be proved wrong.

"Well he went though Sirius… and Merlin knows who else…" Remus trailed off.

She knew who he meant. Her and James. But she didn't want to think about it. Not just now.


	3. The Dursleys Departing

Dumbledore cleared this throat. "Well I guess we'll just keep going. Chapter three"

**The sound of the front door slamming echoed up the stairs and a voice roared, "Oh! You!"**

"He better not be talking to my son." Lily said angrily.

**Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt when his uncle was calling, nevertheless, he did not immediately respond.**

"That man … Oh …" She was flexing her fingers as if to strangle him.

**He was still at the narrow fragment in which, for a split second, he** **had thought he saw Dumbledore's eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, "BOY!" that Harry got slowly out of bed and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to the rucksack filled with things he would be taking with him.**

**"You took you time!" roared Vernon Dursley when Harry appeared at the top of the stairs, "Get down here. I want a word!"**

"Be polite" a fuming Lily yelled.

**Harry strolled downstairs, his hands deep in his pants pockets. When he searched the living room he found all three Dursleys. They were dressed for packing; Uncle Vernon in an old ripped-up jacket and Dudley, Harry's, large, blond, muscular cousin, in his leather jacket.**

**"Yes?" asked Harry.**

**"Sit down!" said Uncle Vernon. Harry raised his eyebrows. "Please!" added Uncle Vernon, wincing slightly as though the word was sharp in his throat. **

"Why do we have to listen to him, he's annoying me already." Sirius moaned.

**Harry sat. He thought he knew what was coming. His uncle began to pace up and down, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, following his movement with anxious expressions. Finally, his large purple face crumpled with concentration. Uncle Vernon stopped in front of Harry and spoke.**

**"I've changed my mind," he said.**

**"What a surprise," said Harry.**

Everyone laughed. Lily was happy to hear him with a sense of humor but she hoped he wasn't always like this, but she didn't care if he said it to her sister and the whale though.

**"Don't you take that tone" began Aunt Petunia in a shrill voice, but Vernon Dursley waved her down "It's all a lot of claptrap," said Uncle Vernon, glaring at Harry with piggy little eyes. "I've decided I don't believe a word of it. We're staying put, we're not going anywhere."**

"Where was he going to go?" Sirius asked curiously.

**Harry looked up at his uncle and felt a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking and repacking the car with every change of heart. Harry's favorite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware that Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it been repacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with a yelp of pain and much swearing.**

Everyone started laughing again. But mostly Lily and James, since they had met Vernon.

**"According to you," Vernon Dursley said, now resuming his pacing up and down the living room, "we … Petunia, Dudley, and I are in danger. From … from"**

**"Some of 'my lot' right?" said Harry. **

"Some of his what?" James asked dangerously.

**"Well I don't believe it," repeated Uncle Vernon, coming to a halt in front of Harry again. "I was awake half the night thinking it all over, and I believe it's a plot to get the house."**

**"The house?" repeated Harry. "What house?"**

**"This house!" shrieked Uncle Vernon, the vein his forehead starting to pulse. "Our house! House prices are skyrocketing around here! You want us out of the way and then you're going to do a bit of hocus pocus and before we know it the deeds will be in your name and"**

"Oh Merlin, is he serious?"Sirius yelled.

James, Lily and Remus looked at him strange. "What?" he barked at them.

"No joke? No pun with that line?" Lily asked with raised eyebrow.

"No, this is a Sirius matter." He joked and they rolled their eyes.

**"Are you out of your mind?" demanded Harry. "A plot to get this house? Are you actually as stupid as you look?"**

"Thank you, Harry, for pointing that out to them." James said so seriously that a few people chuckled.

**"Don't you dare-!" squealed Aunt Petunia, but again Vernon waved her down. Slights on his personal appearance were it seemed as nothing to the danger he had spotted.**

**"Just in case you've forgotten," said Harry, "I've already got a house my godfather left me one. So why would I want this one? All the happy memories?"**

**There was silence. Harry thought he had rather impressed his uncle with this argument.**

"I guess he doesn't have happy memories?" Sirius growled.

**"You claim," said Uncle Vernon, starting to pace yet again, "that this Lord Thing-"**

A few people smiled but no one laughed, they were too afraid of the fuming friends in corner.

**"Voldemort," said Harry impatiently, **

Dumbledore and a few others smiled at the fact that Harry said the name.

"Well least we know he says the name fine." Moody grunted from the corner

**"and we've been through this about a hundred times already. This isn't a claim, it's fact. Dumbledore told you last year, and Kingsley and Mr. Weasley -"**

"Hey, it's me!" Arther exclaimed happily. He was in the book, and he was happy about it.

**Vernon Dursley hunched his shoulders angrily, and Harry guessed that his uncle was attempting to ward off recollections of the unannounced visit, a few days into Harry's summer holidays, of two fully grown wizards. The arrival on the doorstep of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley had come as a most unpleasant shock to the Dursleys. Harry had to admit, however that as Mr. Weasley had once demolished half of the living room, his reappearance could not have been expected to delight Uncle Vernon.**

Everyone laughed this time, they couldn't help it, even Molly, "Why were you at their house though?" she asked when she calmed down. "I don't know. I hope we find out." he replied getting excited.

**"-Kingsley and Mr. Weasley explained it all as well," Harry pressed on remorselessly, "Once I'm seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break, and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I'd come and try to rescue you."**

**Uncle Vernon's and Harry's eyes met. Harry was sure that in that instant they were both wondering the same thing. Then Uncle Vernon walked on and Harry resumed, "You've got to go into hiding and the Order wants to help. You're being offered serious protection, the best there is."**

"Why would we offer them protection? They don't deserve it." James huffed quietly.

**Uncle Vernon said nothing but continued to pace up and down. Outside the sun hung low over the privet hedges. The next door neighbor's lawn mower stalled again.**

**"I thought there was a Ministry of Magic?" asked Vernon Dursley abruptly.**

**"There is," said Harry, surprised. **

**"Well, then, why can't they protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harboring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!"**

"Really?" Sirius laughed amused at how stupid this man was.

**Harry laughed; he could not help himself. It was so very typical of his uncle to put his hopes in the establishment, even within this world that he despised and mistrusted. "You heard what Mr. Weasley and Kingsley said," Harry replied. "We think the Ministry has been infiltrated."**

**Uncle Vernon strode back to the fireplace and back breathing so strongly that his great black mustache rippled his face still purple with concentration.**

**"All right," he said. Stopping in front of Harry get again. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument we accept this protection. I still don't see why we can't have that Kingsley bloke."**

**Harry managed not to roll his eyes, but with difficulty. This question had also been addressed half a dozen times.**

"Who's Kingsley?" James asked

"Mr Shacklebolt is in his third year right now." Minerva explained

He nodded and smiled

**"As I've told you," he said through gritted teeth, "Kingsley is protecting the Mug-I mean, your Prime Minister."**

"Wow, he must be good. To get such a big job" Remus announced happily.

**"Exactly - he's the best!" said Uncle Vernon, pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital. This, and the fact that Kingsley had mastered the knack of dressing like a Muggle, not to mention a certain reassuring something in his slow, deep voice, had caused the Dursleys to take to Kingsley in a way that they had certainly not done with any other wizard, although it was true that they had never seen him with earring in.**

A few people chuckled

**"Well, he's taken," said Harry. "But Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle are more than up to the job -"**

"Oh no … why … Just why …" Dedalus cried dramatically.

It seemed to lighten the mood a lot.

**"If we'd even seen CVs..." began Uncle Vernon, but Harry lost patience. Getting to his feet, he advanced on his uncle, not pointing at the TV set himself.**

**"These accidents aren't accidents - the crashed and explosions and derailments and whatever else has happened since we last watched the news. People are disappearing and dying and he's behind it - Voldemort. I've told you this over and over again, he kills Muggles for fun. Even the fogs - they're caused by dementors, and if you can't remember what they are, ask your son!"**

"That sounds much worse than this war, much, much worse" Sirius muttered, he was as white as a bed sheet.

Everyone nodded, they didn't like the sound of that.

Lily asked a question she didn't quite get, "How would Dudley know?" Everyone looked thoughtful but they just shrugged.

**Dudley's hands jerked upward to tower his mouth. With his parents' and Harry's eyes upon him, he slowly lowered them again and asked, "There are... more of them?"**

**"More?" laughed Harry. "More than the two that attacked us, you mean? Of course there are hundreds, maybe thousands by this time, seeing as they feed off fear and despair -"**

"What! Attacked, he's only seventeen, he won't know how to do a Patronous" Lily said looking frantic.

"He must, Lils, they got away." Remus reassured her, she looked better but only just.

**"All right, all right blustered," blustered Vernon Dursley. "You've made your point -"**

**"I hope so," said Harry, "because once I'm seventeen, all of them - Death Eaters, dementors, maybe even Inferi - which means dead bodies enchanted by a Dark wizard - will be able to find you and will certainly attack you. And if you remember the last time you tried to outrun wizards, I think you'll agree you need help."**

**There was a brief silence in which the distant echo of Hagrid smashing down a wooden front door seemed to reverberate through the intervening years.**

"Good, o'Hagrid." James chuckled.

**Aunt Petunia was looking at Uncle Vernon; Dudley was staring at Harry. Finally Uncle Vernon blurted out, "But what about my work? What about Dudley's school? I don't suppose those things matter to a bunch of layabout wizards "**

"For Merlin's sake. It's this or your life's." Sirius yelled frustrated.

Dumbledore looked at the next line then said "here it is" to Lily and James, and they knew what he meant.

**"Don't you understand?" shouted Harry. "They will torture and kill you like they did my parents!"**

No one talked, they all bowed their heads, some with tears, some looking saddened.

"Can we get on with the book please" James ask impatiently.

**"Dad," said Dudley in a loud voice, "Dad - I'm going with these Order people."**

**"Dudley," said Harry, "for the first time in your life, you're talking sense." **

A few lips twitched

**He knew the battle was won. If Dudley was frightened enough to accept the Order's help, his parents would accompany him. There could be no question of being separated from their Duddykins. Harry glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece.**

**"They'll be here in about five minutes," he said, and when one of the Dursleys replied, he left the room. The prospect of parting - probably forever - from his aunt, uncle, and cousin was one that he was able to contemplate quite cheerfully but there was nevertheless a certain awkwardness in the air. What did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years' solid dislike?**

"A whole lot of swear words and then slam the door, that's what I did." Answered matter-of-factly, a few people looked amused

**Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack then poked a couple of owl nuts through the bats of Hedwig's cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom where she ignored them.**

**"We're leaving soon, really soon," Harry told her. "And then you'll be able to fly again."**

**The doorbell rang. Harry hesitated, then headed back out of his room and downstairs. It was too much to expect Hestia and Dedalus to cope with the Dursleys on their own.**

"Oh thank Merlin, the boy has sense." The mood was slowly lifting.

**"Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited voice, the moment Harry had opened the door; a small man in a mauve top hat that was sweeping him a deep bow. "An honor as ever!"**

"There me! But why is it an honor? We still don't know what extra special about your boy James." He nodded to James.

"I'm starting to feel like I don't want to know." He sighed and a few nodded, they felt the same

**"Thanks, Dedalus," said Harry, bestowing a small and embarrassed smile upon the dark haired Hestia. "It's really good of you to do this... They're through here, my aunt and uncle and cousin..."**

**"Good day to you, Harry Potter's relatives!" said Dedalus happily striding into the living room. The Dursleys did not look at all happy to be addressed thus; Harry half expected another change of mind. Dudley shrank neared to his mother at the sight of the witch and wizard.**

**"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry has told you, is a simple one," said Dedalus, pulling an immense pocket watch out of his waistcoat and examining it. "We shall be leaving before Harry does. Due to the danger of using magic in your house - Harry being still underage it could provide the Ministry with an excuse to arrest him - we shall be driving, say, ten miles or so before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?" He asked Uncle Vernon politely.**

**"Know how to-? Of course I ruddy well know how to drive!" spluttered Uncle Vernon.**

**"Very clever of you, sir, very clever. I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs," said Dedalus. He was clearly under the impression that he was flattering Vernon Dursley, who was visibly losing confidence in the plan with every word Dedalus spoke.**

"Opps, Sorry." Dedalus said not sounding sorry at all.

**"Can't even drive," he muttered under his breath, his mustache rippling indignantly, but fortunately neither Dedalus nor Hestia seemed to hear him.**

**"You, Harry," Dedalus continued, "will wait here for your guard. There has been a little change in the arrangements -"**

**"What d'you mean?" said Harry at once. "I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side Along-Apparition?"**

"Who's Mad-eye?" Alice Longbottom asked but got no answer

**"Can't do it," said Hestia tersely, "Mad-Eye will explain."**

**The Dursleys, who had listened to all of this with looks of utter incomprehension on their faces, jumped as a loud voice screeched, "Hurry up!" Harry looked all around the room before realizing the voice had issued from Dedalus's pocket watch.**

**"Quite right, were operating to a very tight schedule," said Dedalus nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his waist coat. "We are attempting to time your departure from the house with your family's Disapparition, Harry thus the charm breaks the moment you all head for safety." He turned to the Dursleys, "Well, are we all packed and ready to go?"**

**None of them answered him. Uncle Vernon was still staring appalled at the bulge in Dedalus's waistcoat pocket.**

**"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia. She clearly felt that it would be tactless for them to remain the room while Harry and the Dursleys exchanged loving, possibly tearful farewells.**

"Don't count on it, future me." Dedalus said which made a couple of people chuckle lightly

**"There's no need," Harry muttered, but Uncle Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly, "Well, this is good-bye then boy."**

**He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry's hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome.**

"Oh Merlin. He can't even shake his hand?" Lily screeched outraged, the boys pulled her in to a hug trying to calm her down

**"Ready, Duddy?" asked Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at Harry altogether.**

Lily was now breathing in, and out, in and out.

**Dudley did not answer but stood there with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry a little of the giant, Grawp.**

"How would he know a Giant?" Lily asked faintly, not really wanting to know.

**"Come along, then," said Uncle Vernon.**

**He had already reached the living room door when Dudley mumbled, "I don't understand."**

**"What don't you understand, popkin?" asked Petunia looking up at her son.**

"Popkin? Popkin? Oh I feel so sorry for the boy now." Lily said leaning back in her seat

**Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at Harry.**

**"Why isn't he coming with us?"**

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia froze when they stood staring at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become a ballerina.**

**"What?" said Uncle Vernon loudly.**

**"Why isn't he coming too?" asked Dudley.**

**"Well, he - doesn't want to," said Uncle Vernon, turning to glare at Harry and adding, "You don't want to, do you?"**

**"Not in the slightest," said Harry.**

"Thank Merlin, we are nearly rid of them." James muttered.

**"There you are," Uncle Vernon told Dudley. "Now come on we're off."**

**He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open, but Dudley did not move and after a few faltering steps Aunt Petunia stopped too.**

**"What now?" barked Uncle Vernon, reappearing in the doorway.**

**It seemed that Dudley was struggling with concepts too difficult to put into words. After several moments of apparently painful internal struggle he said, "But where's he going to go?"**

"It sounds like he cares?" Lily added thoughtfully with a faint smile.

**Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked at each other. It was clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia Jones broke the silence.**

**"But... surely you know where your nephew is going?" she asked looking bewildered.**

**"Certainly we know," said Vernon Dursley. "He's off with some of your lot, isn't he? Right, Dudley, let's get in the car, you heard the man, we're in a hurry."**

**Again, Vernon Dursley marched as far as the front door, but Dudley did not follow.**

**"Off with some of our lot?"**

**Hestia looked outraged. Harry had met this attitude before Witches and wizards seemed stunned that his closed living relatives took so little interest in the famous Harry Potter.**

"Famous? Why is he Famous? Ah this book is making too many questions." Lily was getting really frustrated now

**"It's fine," Harry assured her. "It doesn't matter, honestly."**

**"Doesn't matter?" repeated Hestia, her voice rising considerably.**

**"Don't these people realize what you've been through? What danger you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti Voldemort movement?"**

"What is she talking about! How can one boy destroy Voldemort." Minerva said in disbelief

**"Er ¨C no, they don't," said Harry. "They think I'm a waste of space, actually but I'm used to -"**

**"I don't think you're a waste of space"**

**If Harry had not seen Dudley's lips move, he might not have believed it. As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken; for one thing, Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself.**

"I guess they didn't like each other before." Sirius pointed out

"No, really? I thought they were the best of friends." Remus said sarcastically,

**"Well... er... thanks, Dudley."**

**Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling, "You saved my life,"**

**"Not really," said Harry. "It was your soul the dementor would have taken..."**

"So not the point, Harry" James laughed. How could his son joke about something like this.

**He looked curiously at his cousin. They had had virtually no contact during this summer or last, as Harry had come back to Privet Drive so briefly and kept to his room so much. It now dawned on Harry, however, that the cup of cold tea on which he had trodden that morning might not have been a booby trap at all. Although rather touched he was nevertheless quite relieved that Dudley appeared to have exhausted his ability to express his feelings. After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet-faced silence.**

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward and embraced Dudley rather than Harry. "S-so sweet, Dudders..." she sobbed into his massive chest. "S-such a lovely b-boy... s-saying thank you..."**

**"But he hasn't said thank you at all!" said Hestia indignantly. "He only said he didn't think Harry was a waste of space!"**

"Thank you!" Lily yelled in thanks to Hestia for pointing the obvious out.

**"Yea but coming from Dudley that's like 'I love you,'" said Harry, torn between annoyance and a desire to laugh as Aunt Petunia continued to clutch at Dudley as if he had just saved Harry from a burning building.**

**"Are we going or not?" roared Uncle Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. "I thought we were on a tight schedule!"**

**"Yes ¨Cyes, we are," said Dedalus Diggle, who had been watching these exchanged with an air of bemusement and now seemed to pull himself together. "We really must be off. Harry –"**

**He tripped forward and wrung Harry's hand with both of his own.**

**"- good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders."**

"Oh great, Jeez, way to boast his confidence Dedalus" James said sarcastically.

"James, shut up. I don't care that he told him that, I care about how? And why?" a frantic Lily yelled.

"Me too Lils, but we'll get the answers when they come." James assured her.

She didn't know how to stop thinking about all of this, her little baby boy was at her parents right now, getting looked after for the night. Here he is seventeen with the world on his shoulders. Literately.

**"Oh," said Harry, "right. Thanks."**

**"Farwell, Harry," said Hestia also clasping his hand. "Our thoughts go with you."**

**"I hope everything's okay," said Harry with a glance toward Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**"Oh I'm sure we shall end up the best of chums," said Diggle slightly, waving his hat as he left the room. Hestia followed him.**

**Dudley gently released himself from his mother's clutches and walked toward Harry who had to repress an urge to threaten him with magic. Then Dudley held out his large, pink hand.**

**"Blimey, Dudley," said Harry over Aunt Petunia's renewed sobs, "did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"**

**"Dunno," muttered Dudley, "See you, Harry."**

**"Yea ..." said Harry, raking Dudley's hand and shaking it. "Maybe. Take care, Big D."**

**Dudley nearly smiled. They lumbered from the room. Harry heard his heavy footfalls on the graveled drive, and then a car door slammed.**

**Aunt Petunia whose face had been buried in her handkerchief looked around at the sound. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with Harry. Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, "Well - good-bye" and marched towards the door without looking at him.**

**"Good-bye" said Harry.**

**She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him; She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little of her head, she hustled out of the room after he husband and son.**

"Deep breathe Lils, In and out, in and out." Sirius was calming Lily down, while Remus was doing the same with James.


	4. The Seven Potters

"Can you continue Sir?" Remus asked politely. He wanted to read as much as possible, so that his friends didn't explode.

"Yes, Mr Lupin, I'll continue. Chapter four"

**Harry ran back upstairs to his bedroom, arriving at the window just in time to see the Dursleys' car swinging out of the drive and off up the road. Dedalus's top hat was visible between Aunt Petunia and Dudley in the backseat. The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned scarlet for a moment in the now setting sun, and then it was gone.**

**Harry picked up Hedwig's cage, his Firebolt, and his rucksack, gave his unnaturally tidy bedroom one last sweeping look, and then made his ungainly way back downstairs to the hall, where he deposited cage, broomstick, and bag near the foot of the stairs. The light was fading rapidly, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat. Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. It gave him an odd, empty feeling remembering those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.**

**"Don't you want to take a last look at the place?" he asked Hedwig, who was still sulking with her head under her wing. "We'll never be here again. Don't you want to remember all the good times? I mean, look at this doormat. What memories ... Dudley sobbed on it after I saved him from the dementors ... Turns out he was grateful after all, can you believe it? ... And last summer, Dumbledore walked through that front door ..."**

"Ok, our son is strange" Lily laughed slightly.

**Harry lost the thread of his thoughts for a moment and Hedwig did nothing to help him retrieve it, but continued to sit with her head under her wing. Harry turned his back on the front door.**

**"And under here, Hedwig" - Harry pulled open a door under the stairs - "is where I used to sleep! You never knew me then - Blimey, it's small, I'd forgotten ..."**

"What did he say?" Remus asked trying to keep his voice calm.

"I'd rather not repeat Mr Lupin." And nodded to the two parents. They were pretending not to have heard so that they didn't blow up.

**Harry looked around at the stacked shoes and umbrellas remembering how he used to wake every morning looking up at the underside of the staircase, which was more often than not adorned with a spider or two. Those had been the days before he had known anything about his true identity; before he had found out how his parents had died or why such strange things often happened around him. But Harry could still remember the dreams that had dogged him, even in those days: confused dreams involving flashes of green light and once –**

Lily burst out crying at this, this was the killing curse. Harry had dreams of that. Everyone looked upset and saddened. No one knew what to say so Dumbledore continued.

** Uncle Vernon had nearly crashed the car when Harry had recounted it - a flying motorbike ...**

**There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of his head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words, he staggered back into the kitchen, clutching his head and staring out of the window into the back garden.**

**The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted. Dominating the scene was Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached. All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses.**

"If he can see them it mean's he's seen someone die." Remus said sadly. He thought of the Harry he knew now, he was only a little baby. It wasn't fair. Even in these books he was still a kid.

**Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him, Ron clapped him on the back, and Hagrid said, "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"**

"Hagrid" Lily shook her head with fond smile on her face.

"Ron?" Molly asked uncertain "That's my son's name, is it the same one? He would only be a couple of months older than Harry?" Everyone nodded meaning most likely yes.

**"Definitely," said Harry, beaming around at them all. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"**

**"Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."**

"Okay, so that's Mad-Eye. That's disgusting" Alice blinked. Totally freaked out by it.

**Harry led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing and chattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances; Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait; **

"Wonder who that is?" Sirius pondered for a moment then gave up.

**Fred and George, grinning identically;**

"that's my twin son's" Molly looked worried.

** Bill, badly scarred and longhaired; **

"That's my eldest, why's he scarred?" Now becoming frantic.

**Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry;**

"There's me," Arther smiled cheerfully.

** Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; **

"Well he's been though his battles" Sirius couldn't help but say

**Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink;**

"Oh, my cousin, and best friends wife" Sirius smirked while Remus went red.

** Lupin, grayer, more lined; **

"Full moons must be getting tough" Remus sighed

**Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; **

"Who is that?" Alice asked, she didn't know anyone like that and it seems no one else did either

"She sounds like a Veela" Sirius said with a dreamy look in his eye.

**Kingsley, bald and broad-shouldered; **

"we know who he is"

**Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling;**

"Hagrid" most people smiled

**and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy beady hound's eyes and matted hair. Harry's heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met**

Everyone just couldn't help just laugh, typical.

**"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" he called across the room.**

**"He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley, "You're more important."**

"Wow" most of the room gasped, they didn't know what this was about but Harry couldn't be lost, no matter what. He was important.

**"Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glistened there.**

**"You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.**

"And there you have it." Sirius grinned, he couldn't get used to the idea of Remus and Tonks.

**"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."**

**"That's brilliant, congrat -"**

**"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub, and silence fell in the kitchen. **

"Moody, you're Mad-Eye." Sirius laughed "Nice nickname."

Moody just grunted in acknowledgement.

**Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you.**

**Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely."**

"Mother's charm? What the hell is he talking about" Lily screamed she was getting really, really annoyed.

**"Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."**

**"I don't -"**

**"The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters."**

**"We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."**

**Harry could not help but agree with the unknown Thicknesse.**

**"So what are we going to do?"**

**"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."**

**Harry could see flaws in this plan; however, he held his tongue to give Mad-Eye the chance to address them.**

"Yeah I see the flaw too" most of the room agreed.

**"Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or"- Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen -"you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"**

"I don't understand this" Lily muttered

**Harry nodded.**

**"So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen."**

**"The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. **

"Oh no, Snape told him the real date… oh no … oh no"

**We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's - you get the idea."**

**"Yeah," said Harry, not entirely truthfully, because he could still spot a gaping hole in the plan.**

**"You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"**

**"Er - yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once" - he performed a quick headcount - "fourteen of us fly off toward Tonks's parents?"**

**"Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Fourteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house."**

**From inside his cloak Moody now withdrew a flask of what looked like mud. There was no need for him to say another word; Harry understood the rest of the plan immediately.**

"Wonder how?" Remus wanted to know how Harry knew of his potion

**"No!" he said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"**

"What? What's going on with him?" James asked everyone at the table but they didn't acknowledge.

**"I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.**

"How did she know?" Sirius asked, he was also not acknowledged.

**"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives -!"**

"Ah, I see now." Said Remus as he sunk in to his chair.

**"- because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.**

"What does that mean?" a frantic Molly yelled.

**"This is different, pretending to be me -"**

"Yeah, it kind of is, I have to agree with him." Remus stated

**"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."**

"Sounds like pranksters" Sirius laughed

**Harry did not smile.**

"Oh c'mon Harry" Sirius sighed disappointed

**"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."**

**"Well, that's the plan scuppered," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."**

**"Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," said Fred.**

Half of the room was in stitches, they loved these twins.

**"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."**

"I thought so too" Sirius said in between laughs.

**"If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk."**

**Mundungus shrugged and grimaced; the magical eye swerved sideways to glance at him out of the side of Moody's head.**

"That's handy." Moody stated about the eye.

**"Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."**

**"But this is mad, there's no need -"**

**"No need!" snarled Moody. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven."**

**Harry caught Hermione's eye and looked away at once.**

"What was that about?" most muttered and narrowed there eyes.

**"So, Potter - some of your hair, if you please."**

**Harry glanced at Ron, who grimaced at him in a just-do-it sort of way.**

"Thank you Ron." James sighed

**"Now!" barked Moody.**

A few chuckled

**With all of their eyes upon him, Harry reached up to the top of his head, grabbed a hank of hair, and pulled.**

**"Good," said Moody, limping forward as he pulled the stopper out of the flask of potion. "Straight in here, if you please."**

**Harry dropped the hair into the mudlike liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.**

"Wow"

"Oh Merlin"

"Your son … Wow" was heard from everyone in the room.

**"Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione, before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows, blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you know what I mean - Goyle's potion tasted like bogies."**

"And how would she know that?" Lily asked knowing exactly how.

**"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," said Moody.**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur lined up in front of Aunt Petunia's gleaming sink.**

**"We're one short," said Lupin.**

**"Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.**

"Good idea" Lily laughed.

**"I'm a soldier, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.**

**"Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."**

"This is deep." James muttered to himself but mostly everyone heard him.

**Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Moody was already pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.**

**"Altogether, then ..."**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats; At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.**

**Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.**

**Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow - we're identical!"**

A few people chuckled, it looks like these two were pranksters

**"I dunno, though, I think I'm still better-looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.**

More people laughed

**"Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me - I'm 'ideous."**

"French, and a Veela" Sirius stated in a matter-of-factly voice.

"Never mind that, what's bill got to do with her?" Molly asked

**"Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."**

**The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgangers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own.**

**"I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.**

"Who's Ginny?"

**"Harry, your eyesight really is awful," said Hermione, as she put on glasses.**

"No, he wears them because they look nice."

**Once dressed, the fake Harrys took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.**

**"Good," said Moody, as at last seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom -"**

**"Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.**

**"Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody, and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungus as he continued, "Arthur and Fred -"**

**"I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing. "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"**

**"Sorry, George -"**

**"I'm only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really -"**

The whole room laughed and Moody shook his head.

**"Enough messing around!" snarled Moody. "The other one - George or Fred or whoever you are - you're with Remus. Miss Delacour -"**

**"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."**

**Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.**

"Oh, there together." Molly muttered not knowing how to go about it.

**"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral -"**

**Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kingsley's smile; Harry knew that Hermione too lacked confidence on a broomstick.**

"What? Is she metal" James cried in disbelief

**"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at him.**

**Ron did not look quite as pleased as Hermione.**

Sirius was laughing his head off

**"An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."**

**"That's great," said Harry, not altogether truthfully.**

**"We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody, who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling.**

"Good, my son can fly well" James sighed looking relieved

** "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who looks at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on ..."**

**Harry hurried to gather his rucksack, Firebolt, and Hedwig's cage and followed the group to the dark back garden.**

**On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up onto a great black thestral by Kingsley, Fleur onto the other by Bill. Hagrid was standing ready beside the motorbike, goggles on.**

**"Is this it? Is this Sirius's bike?"**

"What I have a bike?" Sirius exclaimed looking excited.

**"The very same," said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. "An' the last time yeh was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!"**

**Harry could not help but feel a little humiliated as he got into the sidecar. It placed him several feet below everybody else: Ron smirked at the sight of him sitting there like a child in a bumper car. Harry stuffed his rucksack and broomstick down by his feet and rammed Hedwig's cage between his knees. He was extremely uncomfortable.**

**"Arthur's done a bit o' tinkerin'," said Hagrid, quite oblivious to Harry's discomfort. He settled himself astride the motorcycle, which creaked slightly and sank inches into the ground. "It's got a few tricks up its sleeves now. Tha' one was my idea." He pointed a thick finger at a purple button near the speedometer.**

**"Please be careful, Hagrid." said Mr. Weasley, who was standing beside them, holding his broomstick. "I'm still not sure that was advisable and it's certainly only to be used in emergencies."**

"Good, you warned him" Moody grunted

**"All right, then." said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."**

**Everybody motioned their heads. "Hold tight now, Ron," said Tonks, and Harry saw Ron throw a forcing, guilty look at Lupin before placing his hands on each side of her waist.**

Sirius just had to laugh every time something like this was mentioned, because well Dora was nine ... nice years old.

**Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life: It roared like a dragon, and the sidecar began to vibrate.**

**"Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One ... two . THREE."**

**There was a great roar from the motorbike, and Harry felt the sidecar give a nasty lurch. He was rising through the air fast, his eyes watering slightly, hair whipped back off his face. Around him brooms were soaring upward too; the long black tail of a thestral flicked past. His legs, jammed into the sidecar by Hedwig's cage and his rucksack, were already sore and starting to go numb. So great was his discomfort that he almost forgot to take a last glimpse of number four Privet Drive. By the time he looked over the edge of the sidecar he could no longer tell which one it was.**

**And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded. At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious – **

"Oh no." Lily muttered over and over again, everyone was very tense they didn't know what was about to happen

**Screams, a blaze of green light on every side: Hagrid gave a yell and the motorbike rolled over. Harry lost any sense of where they were. Streetlights above him, yells around him, he was clinging to the sidecar for dear life. Hedwig's cage, the Firebolt, and his rucksack slipped from beneath his knees - **

**"No - HELP!"**

**The broomstick spun too, but he just managed to seize the strap of his rucksack and the top of the cage as the motorbike swung the right way up again. A second's relief, and then another burst of green light. The owl screeched and fell to the floor of the cage.**

"Oh my Merlin, the poor Owl," Lily said tears running down her face.

**"No - NO!"**

"Harry" James said sadly.

**The motorbike zoomed forward; Harry glimpsed hooded Death Eaters scattering as Hagrid blasted through their circle.**

**"Hedwig - Hedwig -"**

Some of the woman sniffed

**But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a mass of people moving, flares of green light, two pairs of people on brooms soaring off into the distance, but he could not tell who they were -**

**"Hagrid, we've got to go back, we've got to go back!" he yelled over the thunderous roar of the engine, pulling out his wand, ramming Hedwig's cage into the floor, refusing to believe that she was dead. "Hagrid, TURN AROUND!"**

"No! Don't!" Lily screeched.

**"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle. "Stop ¨C STOP!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wriggling around he cried, "Stupefy!" and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.**

"Good" muttered most

**"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge. A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into being in midair. Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.**

**More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands;**

"Oh no," Lily sobbed

"Lils, he sounds like he can handle himself," James told her even though he was anxious too

** they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of multicolored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening -**

"Just focus!" Lily was going out of her mind with worry, and her son was thinking what muggles were thinking. Even though he was the one an inch from death and she was the one safe in a house.

**"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid, and he jabbed at a second button. This time a great net burst from the bike's exhaust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unconscious friend had caught up. He bloomed suddenly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the motorbike, all shooting curses after it.**

**"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight!" yelled Hagrid, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.**

**With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame, and at the same time felt the sidecar sway ominously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceleration.**

"What!" Lily, James, Sirius and Remus all shouted

**"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto the back by the surge of speed; nobody was steering now, and the sidecar was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.**

**"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flowery pink umbrella.**

**"Hagrid! No! Let me!"**

"He's knows not to let Hagrid"

**"REPARO!"**

**There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely. Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height -**

**In desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"**

"He's a good thinker in these situations." Moody observed

**The sidecar rose like a cork, unsteerable but at least still airborne. He had but a split second's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.**

**"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar beginning to sink again: Crouching as low as he could, he pointed at the middle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "Impedimenta!"**

"Good" a few people muttered

**The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible barrier: One of his fellows almost collided with him - Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat -**

**"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!"**

**A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his rucksack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid. As they soared upward, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Confringo!"**

**He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded; the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his companion fell back and vanished.**

**"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself ¨C yeh've got no room"**

**"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.**

"Good, he knows what to do." Moody said again.

**As the curses came shooting across the intervening space again, Hagrid swerved and zigzagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button again, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike - Stan -**

**"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.**

"What the hell did he do that for?" most shouted

**"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"**

"How did they know?" everyone muttered this time

**The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and disappeared from view.**

"Not good… not good at all"

**"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"**

**"I don't know!"**

**But Harry was afraid: The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!"; how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its menace. Where were they?**

**He clambered round on the seat to face forward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.**

**"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"**

**"Hold on tight, then, Harry!"**

**There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the exhaust: Harry felt himself slipping backwards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars "I think we've lost 'em Harry, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.**

**But Harry was not convinced; Fear lapped at him as he looked left and right for pursuers he was sure would come... Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand... It's him... it's the real one... They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan...**

**"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.**

**Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed remote as stars.**

**Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire: **

"What's that about?" everyone turned to each other and asked but no one knew the answer

**as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind – **

"Oh my Merlin." Lily sobbed

**And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or thestral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again –**

Everyone either groaned or lightly screamed

**Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clinging on for dear life, Harry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike spiraled through the air, completely out of control -**

Everyone was sitting on the edge of there seats, it sounded like Harry was used to this but they weren't. They didn't have Voldemort hunting them everyday.

**Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broomstick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm **

**"NO!"**

**With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater; to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broomstick -**

"Hagrid… No, no"

"Look on the bright side, he was the right person for your son, he would have died for him." Moody told them but they didn't care

**Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, "Mine!"**

"No, not yours. Please not yours." Lily muttered over and over again

**It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, "Avada -" **

"Everyone shouted "NO"

**As the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord.**

"What?" everyone fully confused now

** He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury.**

"YES" Sirius couldn't help but shout

** The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, "NO!" **

**Somehow, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire button. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight toward the ground.**

**"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid - Accio Hagrid!"**

**The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see nothing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: He was going to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"**

"Harry broke the wand" Remus said in disbelief, no one knew what to do or say. This person, this man. No not man, kid.

**He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more -**

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, waiting.

**And then Voldemort vanished. Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. He pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groped for the brake, but with an earsplitting, ground trembling crash, he smashed into a muddy pond.**

Everyone was silent. That was intense. But it just brought up more questions? Why did Voldemort want to kill? What was so different and special about him? Lily and James were glad people were there to take care of him, but why did he need this much protection? Why was he _this_ special? No one knew the answers.


	5. The Fallen Warrior

"Chapter 5" Albus announced

**"Hagrid?"**

"Oh no, please don't let Hagrid die." Lily said, a lot of people nodded with her.

**Harry struggled to raise himself out of the debris of metal and leather that surrounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.**

**"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me -"**

**But the dark mass did not stir.**

"He might just be unconscious, you know?" Moody pointed out "After that fall anyone would be"

**"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Potter?"**

**Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"**

"There are Dora's" Sirius let out a breathe he had been holding in

**Harry's head was swimming.**

**"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.**

**The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been regrown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.**

"What is wrong with him scar?" Aberforth said, he was getting really frustrated

**"Hagrid?"**

**He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit sitting room. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watching Harry anxiously.**

Sirius laughed, when people looked at him he said "Sorry but what a way to describe Ted" some of the people who knew Ted Tonks laughed

**"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's seeing to him now. How are you feeling? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks - Dora's father."**

"You're father-in law, Moony." James smirked and shouldered him but Remus ignored him

**Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.**

**"Voldemort -"**

**"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"**

"Hey!" Arther said with mock-hurt

**"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them - we were chased -"**

**"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved tonight, I thought –"**

"Nice way to get him worried Harry" Lily huffed

**"They knew," said Harry.**

**Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.**

**"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction."**

"That's why he vanished then" Remus said matter-of-factly

**Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.**

Quite a few people chuckled at Harry's imagination

**He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a little but miraculously alive.**

"Oh good." Some muttered

**"Harry!"**

**Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."**

**"Yeah, me too. I can't believe -"**

**Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.**

**"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.**

"mm" Sirius said shaking his head

A couple of people looked at him but he just waved them off.

**"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up...And that's my wife you're shouting at."**

**"Oh, I'm - I'm sorry."**

**As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced: Her hair was a light soft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder.**

"Ohhhh" the people who didn't know said shaking her head

** Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclamation.**

**"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymphadora?"**

"Dora will love that" Sirius laughed knowing how his little cousin hated her name

**"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."**

**She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair...**

"No it wasn't, you had to do it boy!" Moody grumbled.

Nearly everyone nodded with him. They all agreed with that

**"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a sudden. "We've got to get back to the Burrow and find out - then we'll be able to send you word, or - or Tonks will, once she's -"**

"The Burrow, that's our house!" Molly and Arther exclaimed, this cheered a few people up and they smiled

**"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three minutes, if you want to take it."**

**"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I -"**

**He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words occurred to him that he did not seem hollow and insincere.**

"Just grab the port-key" Moody mumbled on his breath irritated

**"I'll tell Tonks - Dora - to send word, when she... Thanks for patching us up, thanks for everything, I -"**

**He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door lintel.**

**"There you go, son. That's the Portkey."**

**Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing table.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave.**

**"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"**

Some sigh, it seems Hedwig was close to Harry.

**"She... she got hit," said Harry.**

**The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.**

"Must be hard on him then" Frank Longbottom mutter under his breath, some looked sad and sympathetic.

**Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.**

**"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life -"**

**"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hairbrush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger to it in time.**

**With a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hurtled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.**

**"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.**

"There's me" She shouted and caused a few chuckles

**"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.**

**The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.**

Some people groaned, this just couldn't get worse

**"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the moment we took off - they knew it was tonight - I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us -"**

**He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but - **

**"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.**

"Good, it wasn't his fault." Molly said slowly

**"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal purposes?"**

**She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information at once.**

"Who's Ginny?" Arther and Molly asked. They didn't know a Ginny

**"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin aught to be back in about a minute."**

"Everyone will be safe, don't worry" Sirius said reassuring himself

**Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.**

Nearly everyone smiled

**"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot several feet away.**

"I have a daughter!" Arther and Molly shouted happily, they couldn't believe it, they never expected to have a girl. Everyone smiled. They were happy for them two.

**A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew immediately that there was something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.**

"Oh no, Georgie" Molly's moods deflated almost immediately

**Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing.**

Some people looked like they were about to be sick. Oh Merlin.

** The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.**

**No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.**

"What are you doing?" Lily snapped at him and he shrugged

"I don't know, this is seventeen years in the future"

**"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"**

"Good, Hagrid, you tell him." Lily said as if Hagrid was in the room

**Lupin ignored him.**

"Of course" Lily muttered under her breath

**"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"**

"Very good, Mr Lupin." Albus smiled "Making sure he's the real Harry"

"Yeah, yeah, but why would I have a office at Hogwarts?"

"Maybe you're a teacher, Professor Moony." Smirked Sirius

"You know I can't be a teacher, with, well you know." He replied awkwardly and everyone looked the other way, they thought he was a teacher.

**"A - a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"**

**Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.**

**"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.**

**"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."**

"Well done" Moody said to Remus who smiled at the praise

**"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.**

**"You're half-giant," said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only."**

**"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."**

"He's got a point" Lily said slowly with a thoughtful look on her face

**"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you escape?"**

"Yeah, I agree, not the best way to tell me" Remus said ever so seriously

**Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.**

**"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"**

"That's what we would like to know" James said suspiciously

**"I..." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpike... You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of - well, he doesn't know what he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"**

**Lupin looked aghast.**

**"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"**

"You're telling a sixteen year old boy to kill someone?" Lily said shocked at what Remus had said

"Lils, it sounds like they want him dead and won't stop until he is" Remus reasoned. Everyone knew he had a point but Harry was only a sixteen year old. He couldn't someone even if he wasn't to

"The wars not won, if you're your own worst enemy at the end of it." She said stubbornly

**"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly.**

"He faced two years ago?" James muttered faintly

"Never mind that James, how the hell did Expelliarmus help him get away from the most deadly wizard in like a century?" Lily asked terrified but also curious like everyone else.

** Lupin was reminding him of the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.**

Dumbledore looked thoughtful, "Dumbledore's army? I wonder" he muttered while everyone looked at him. He shook his head to say he didn't know anything about it.

**"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"**

"He has point, Harry" Lily whispered sadly, she had to agree with Remus

**"So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?" said Harry angrily.**

"He never said that" Frank nodded, he could have used any other spell but not that

**"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters - frankly, most people! - would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"**

"Why would Death Eaters even be interested in my boy, why do they want him, why are they trying so hard?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling we don't want to lose him, it sounds like he's leading a resolution" Moody grunted

"I know, but he's only sixteen!" She insisted but everyone shrugged, they were surprised the boy had lived this long.

**Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance inside him.**

**"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Voldemort's job."**

"Well said Harry" James announced proudly

**Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again.**

**"Will George be okay?"**

**All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.**

**"I think so, although there's no chance of replacing his ear, not when it's been cursed off -"**

**There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.**

**Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, but Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.**

**"The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"**

**"'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.**

"No pressure" Sirius stage whispered which made some smile

**Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"**

**"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"**

**"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."**

**"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"**

**"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."**

**Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.**

"Who's she waiting for?" Molly asked impatiently

**"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.**

**"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can -"**

**"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."**

**"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"**

**"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.**

"Remus" Lily snapped at him, he just smiled sadly at her

**"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"**

**Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.**

**"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"**

**"He lost an ear," said Lupin**

**"lost an -?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.**

**"Snape's work," said Lupin.**

"I'm going to kill him" Molly growled

**"Snape?" shouted Harry. "You didn't say -"**

**"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."**

**"**Thank you Remus" Molly smiled kindly

"No bother, Molly, really" he smiled back

**Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?**

**"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still tending to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his bleeding now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean gaping hole where George's ear had been.**

Molly let out a small sad groan. Her poor baby, he was only two years old just now.

**"How is he?"**

**Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much worse... He's alive."**

**"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."**

**"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.**

**"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.**

**"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her; he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the impulse, there was a great crash from the kitchen.**

"Oh, sounds like you're daughter and Harry are pretty friendly?" Sirius smirked, everyone smiled but no one said anything

**"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"**

"Arther" James laughed and Arther blushed

**Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured.**

"Thank Merlin" Molly muttered quietly

**"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"**

"I must have been out of my mind with worry" she said taking a deep breath

**"How is he?"**

**Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.**

"He most likely couldn't" Remus said quietly

**Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father's arrival, George stirred.**

**"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.**

**George's fingers groped for the side of his head.**

**"Saintlike," he murmured.**

Remus, James and Sirius all laughed out loud, when people looked at them they just said "I feel a joke coming on"

**"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"**

**"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"**

Everyone laughed now, these two were hassle. McGonagall was worrying what would these two get up to.

**Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.**

**"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"**

"Exactly"

**"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."**

Molly's laugh sounded like a quiet sob

**He looked around.**

**"Hi, Harry - you are Harry, right?"**

**"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.**

**"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"**

**"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded. Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to accompany him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.**

**"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."**

**Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Burrow, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, throbbing in his chest, clogging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.**

Everyone smiled and Lily and Molly cooed

**Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. Hagrid, Hermione, and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.**

**The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves – **

**And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground ¨C**

**"It's them!" screamed Hermione.**

**Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.**

**"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. **

Sirius couldn't help just chuckle a little and got sent a death glare from Remus that made him and everyone else laugh harder

**His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly toward Harry and Hermione.**

**"You're okay," he mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.**

"Oh, that who she was worried about Molly" Lily smiled at Molly and she smiled back, all her children were so grown up

**"I thought - I thought -"**

**"'M all right," said Ron, patting her on the back. "'M fine."**

**"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom –"**

**"You did?" said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.**

Lily and Molly cooed again

**"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, breaking free. "Are we the last back?"**

**"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron -"**

**She ran back inside.**

**"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.**

"Hey!" Sirius said to Remus "Don't be angry with Dora!" Remus just smiled

**"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus... Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us -"**

"Who did Bellatrix kill, I wonder?" Sirius said out load

**A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.**

"Oh, never mind, he was just worried" James said certainly. Everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows. "He does that when he's worried"

**"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Harry, Hermione, and Kingsley.**

**They recounted the stories of their own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.**

**"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."**

**Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Harry thought he heard the faintest pop as Kingsley Disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.**

**Mr. And Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.**

**"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons."**

**"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.**

**"How's George?" asked Lupin.**

**"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.**

**"He's lost -"**

**But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.**

Molly and Arther let out a breathe of relief

**"Bill! Thank God, thank God -"**

**Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."**

Everyone turned to Moody shocked but he seem unmoved by his news, "everyone had to die at some point" he grunted as normal. Everyone was in shock, no Moody, couldn't die. It just wasn't possible. It's Moody for merlin's sake.

**Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.**

Moody was actually touched sort of by this boy. He didn't sound close to him but still he felt warm to know someone cared when he died even if he - himself - didn't.

**"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort - he can fly - went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and - there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail -"**

"Dung" most growled

**Bill's voice broke.**

Everyone looked saddened, apart from Moody

**"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.**

**They all stood looking at each other. Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be... Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor...**

"Sounds like you don't change Moody" Sirius said

**At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. And Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.**

"They won't be laughing for long" growled Sirius. He couldn't believe Dung. What. An. Idiot

**"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's -?"**

**"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley, "Dead."**

Everyone looked down again.

**The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his protige at the Ministry of Magic.**

"She must be good then" Moody grunted, it was nice to know he had a favourite in the future. Sirius smiled thinking about his little cousin becoming Moody's favourite.

** Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.**

**Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire-whisky and some glasses.**

**"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand, eh sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."**

**"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank.**

"Well I'm touched, even though I'm dead." He laughed and so did everyone else but they were forced laughs

**"Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. The firewhisky seared Harry's throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage.**

**"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.**

**The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear.**

**"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."**

"True, but no one else did" Lily pointed out fiercely. "Even kids not of age yet."

**"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley... "**

"Kingsley must be good as well then"

**"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."**

"She has a point" most said clearly

**She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently daring any of them to contradict her. Nobody did. The only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchief. Harry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's - Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg...**

"He what!" Lily was outraged. A stupid dragon egg.

But Albus laughed "Well, I see he finally's get one." And most chuckled at that

**"No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. "I mean... if somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort."**

"Well said Harry, Well said." James said proudly and most smiled at him, proud of a son that wasn't even one year old yet.

**More silence followed his words. They were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more firewhisky for something to do. As he drank, he thought of Mad-Eye. Mad-Eye had always been scathing about Dumbledore's willingness to trust people.**

"As I should" he grunted but Albus just smiled

**"Well said, Harry," said Fred unexpectedly.**

**"Year, 'ear, 'ear," said George, with half a glance at Fred, the corner of whose mouth twitched.**

Everyone laughed quietly.

**Lupin was wearing an odd expression as he looked at Harry. It was close to pitying.**

**"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.**

**"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."**

"That's because it is" James said but Remus's face hardened he knew were this was going.

**Harry knew what Lupin was getting at: that his father had been betrayed by his friend Peter Pettigrew. **

"Forgot about that" James muttered angrily and the reminder and so did everyone else. They couldn't believe it. Little Peter. They were such fools to not see it.

**He felt irrationally angry. He wanted to argue, but Lupin had turned away from him, set down his glass upon a side table, and addressed Bill, "There's work to do. I can ask Kingsley whether -"**

**"No," said Bill at once, "I'll do it, I'll come."**

**"Where are you going?" said Tonks and Fleur together.**

"Protective girls." Sirius laughed but was ignored expect by a few who smiled

**"Mad-Eye's body," said Lupin. "We need to recover it."**

"leave it" Moody grunted

**"Can't it -?" began Mrs. Weasley with an appealing look at Bill.**

**"Wait?" said Bill, "Not unless you'd rather the Death Eaters took it?"**

"I'm dead, I won't care" he said but no one was paying attention they thought Remus and Bill were right

**Nobody spoke. Lupin and Bill said good bye and left.**

**The rest of them now dropped into chairs, all except for Harry, who remained standing. The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence.**

**"I've got to go too," said Harry.**

"What?" most muttered confused

**Ten pairs of startled eyes looked at him.**

**"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, "What are you talking about?"**

**"I can't stay here."**

**He rubbed his forehead; it was prickling again, he had not hurt like this for more than a year.**

"Why is it hurting? Why does he even have a scar?" no one knew. This was the question they wanted to know, what was so bloody special about a stupid scar.

**"You're all in danger while I'm here. I don't want -"**

"Tough, if you're there it means we wanted you to be" Molly said so fiercely that no one argued

**"But don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Weasley. "The whole point of tonight was to get you here safely, and thank goodness it worked. And Fleur's agreed to get married here rather than in France, we've arranged everything so that we can all stay together and look after you -"**

**She did not understand; she was making him feel worse, not better.**

"I think that's what I'm trying to do, make him feel guilty" she told everyone and they agreed that was probably the best way.

**"If Voldemort finds out I'm here -"**

**"But why should he?" asked Mrs. Weasley.**

**"There are a dozen places you might be now, Harry," said Mr. Weasley. "He's got no way of knowing which safe house you're in.**

**"It's not me I'm worried for!" said Harry.**

"Does he even care for his life?" Alice asked, she was curious about his young boy

**"We know that," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "but it would make our efforts tonight seem rather pointless if you left."**

**"Yer not goin' anywhere," growled Hagrid. "Blimey, Harry, after all we wen' through ter get you here?"**

**"Yeah, what about my bleeding ear?" said George, hoisting himself up on his cushions.**

**"I know that -"**

**"Mad-Eye wouldn't want -"**

"Oh no, you brought the dead person in" Sirius muttered knowing that was a little too far

**"I KNOW!" Harry bellowed.**

"Lily's temper… just what we needed" All three friends grinned at Lily while she huffed

**He felt beleaguered and blackmailed: Did they think he did not know what they had done for him, didn't they understand that it was for precisely that reason that he wanted to go now, before they had to suffer any more on his behalf? There was a long and awkward silence in which his scar continued to prickle and throb, and which was broken at last by Mrs. Weasley.**

**"Where's Hedwig, Harry?" she said coaxingly. "We can put her up with Pidwidgeon and give her something to eat."**

"Not the best thing to say" she frowned

**His insides clenched like a fist. He could not tell her the truth. He drank the last of his firewhisky to avoid answering.**

**"Wait till it gets out yeh did it again, Harry," said Hagrid. "Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!"**

"Again? Again? Did you hear that? He shouldn't even need to do it once!" Lily gulped slowly. Her poor baby boy, and she wasn't even there for him

**"It wasn't me," said Harry flatly. "It was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord."**

"We are not going to believe that" Arther said knowingly

**After a few moments, Hermione said gently, "But that's impossible, Harry. You mean that you did magic without meaning to; you reacted instinctively."**

**"No," said Harry. "The bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognized. I've never made gold flames appear before."**

**"Often," said Mr. Weasley, "when you're in a pressured situation you can produce magic you never dreamed of. Small children often find, before they're trained -"**

"Told you" he whispered darkly

**"It wasn't like that," said Harry through gritted teeth. His scar was burning. He felt angry and frustrated; he hated the idea that they were all imagining him to have power to match Voldemort's.**

"He's just a boy!"Lily gasped

"Yeah, but a special boy at that. He seems to know what he's doing, if he's faced Voldemort a few times now, he seems to be able to fight." James assured her "He'll be okay, Lily"

**No one said anything. He knew that they did not believe him. Now that he came to think of it, he had never heard of a wand performing magic on its own before.**

"Exactly" everyone muttered

**His scar seared with pain, it was all he could do not to moan aloud. Muttering about fresh air, he set down his glass and left the room.**

**As he crossed the yard, the great skeletal thestral looked up - rustled its enormous batlike wings, then resumed its grazing. Harry stopped at the gate into the garden, staring out at its overgrown plants, rubbing his pounding forehead and thinking of Dumbledore.**

Dumbledore smiled sadly

**Dumbledore would have believed him, he knew it. Dumbledore would have known how and why Harry's wand had acted independently, because Dumbledore always had the answers; he had known about wands, had explained to Harry the strange connection that existed between his wand and Voldemort's... **

"It seems you were really close sir?" Lily asked curiously

"Yeah, it does seem like that, I just don't know why, but I can tell you now. He's a special boy."

**But Dumbledore, like Mad-Eye, like Sirius, like his parents, like his poor owl, all were gone where Harry could never talk to them again. He felt a burning in his throat that had nothing to do with firewhisky...**

Everyone looked down sadly. This boy had lost a lot of people.

**And then, out of nowhere, the pain in his scar peaked. As he clutched his forehead and closed his eyes, a voice screamed inside his head.**

"What?" everyone asked confused and a little worried

"I don't know, but it defiantly says that."

**"You told me the problem would be solved by using another's wand!"**

"What?" everyone muttered again.

**And into his mind burst the vision of an emaciated old man lying in rags upon a stone floor, screaming, a horrible drawn-out scream, a scream of unendurable agony...**

"A vision? What do you mean a vision, sir?"

"I don't know Mrs Potter, but it seems your son is having one, that would be the screaming voice in his head"

**"No! No! I beg you, I beg you..."**

**"You lied to Lord Voldemort, Ollivander!"**

"He's having a vision of Voldemort" she said faintly, she was so white she looked like she would faint, others looked just like her.

"Ollivander? What does he want with him" Aberforth asked curiously

"My son, has visions, of Voldemort, in his head." James repeated a few times. How is that even possible.

**"I did not... I swear I did not..."**

**"You sought to help Potter, to help him escape me!"**

**"I swear I did not... I believed a different wand would work..."**

**"Explain, then, what happened. Lucius's wand is destroyed!"**

"Harry destroyed his wand? Wicked" Sirius said awed

**"I cannot understand... The connection... exists only . between your two wands..."**

"They must be brother wands … That's rare" Dumbledore said. He knew if this was true that would mean Fawkes's would be the feather in Harry's wand

No one knew weather to be awed or terrified

**"Lies!"**

**"Please... I beg you..."**

**And Harry saw the white hand raise its wand and felt Voldemort's surge of vicious anger, saw the frail old main on the floor writhe in agony **

Everyone was unable to form words, so this sixteen year old, was starting a revolution, Voldemort was after him, determined to kill him and not only that, but he see's inside Voldemort's head. That's was disgusting.

**"Harry?**

**It was over as quickly as it had come: Harry stood shaking in the darkness, clutching the gate into the garden, his heart racing, his scar still tingling. It was several moments before he realized that Ron and Hermione were at his side.**

"They must be his closest friends." Sirius nodded knowingly, They sounded like him and his friends.

**"Harry, come back in the house," Hermione whispered, "You aren't still thinking of leaving?"**

**"Yeah, you've got to stay, mate," said Ron, thumping Harry on the back**

**"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, close enough now to look into Harry's face. "You look awful!"**

"She's got such tact" Sirius laughed and a few chuckled still in shock about the vision

**"Well," said Harry shakily, "I probably look better than Ollivander..."**

"How can he joke after that?" Lily said unable to see how it was possible

"Sounds like it's happened before Lils, It doesn't sound new" Remus explained but only briefly, he didn't want to upset her more.

**When he had finished telling them what he had seen, Ron looked appalled, but Hermione downright terrified.**

**"But it was supposed to have stopped! Your scar - it wasn't supposed to do this anymore! You mustn't let that connection open up again - Dumbledore wanted you to close your mind!"**

"It doesn't sound like he can help it" Alice said appalled, how the bloody merlin was this happening

**When he did not reply, she gripped his arm.**

**"Harry, he's taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the Wizarding world! Don't let him inside your head too!"**

"Gee, that must make him feel so much better" Sirius muttered darkly. His poor little Godson and he wasn't even there for him.


	6. Flesh, Blood, and Bone

"Do you want me to continue?" Albus asked everyone

"Yes, sir, we can't not continue, we need to know what's happening"

Albus looked around and everyone nodded mutely. "Very well" He turned the page and was about to begin but Remus cut him off "Sir, can you check the back page? I noticed that in some muggle books, they put stuff on the back, stuff you might not understand." Everyone looked at Dumbledore as he turned to the back page.

"There are a few chapters here but they are from different books, they are about Harry but they are not when he is sixteen, the first one is when he is fourteen. Would you like me to read it?"

Everyone nodded. They didn't know what to expect but it couldn't be that bad, I mean he was only fourteen. He couldn't be fighting this time. He wouldn't know how.

**Harry felt his feet slam into the ground; his injured leg gave way, and he fell forward; his hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. He raised his head.**

"The Triwizard Cup… He's the champion. Of the Triwizard tournament at fourteen, this boy's amazing" Remus said in the most of awe's

**"Where are we?" he said.**

**Cedric shook his head. He got up, pulled Harry to his feet, and they looked around.**

"Cedric? Who's Cedric? Why is there two of them? Two champions, that hasn't happened before."

**They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously traveled miles -perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone.**

"That doesn't sound good" Frank muttered, that didn't sound good at all

**They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Harry could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.**

**Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Harry.**

**"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" he asked.**

"It's not supposed to be, is it, sir?" Lily asked frantic

"No, Mrs Potter. No it is not" with a thoughtful look

**"Nope," said Harry. He was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"**

"No it isn't Harry, just get out of there" James muttered darkly

**"I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"**

**"Yeah," said Harry, glad that Cedric had made the suggestion rather than him.**

**They pulled out their wands. Harry kept looking around him. He had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.**

"Oh Merlin, please no." Lily whimpered in to James's top

**"Someone's coming," he said suddenly.**

**Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Harry couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something.**

**Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Harry saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby ... or was it merely a bundle of robes?**

"Why would they have a baby? No Harry I think it's so much more" Remus suggested with a doubtful look

**Harry lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric. Cedric shot him a quizzical look. They both turned back to watch the approaching figure.**

**It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second. Harry and Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.**

The atmosphere was so tense, the room was so quiet, no one knew what was coming, they didn't even know anything that had happened before this.

**And then, without warning, Harry's scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life; his wand slipped from his fingers as he put his hands over his face; his knees buckled; he was on the ground and he could see nothing at all; his head was about to split open.**

"Voldemort" Sirius said faintly, but everyone heard, everyone's stared wide-eyed. They didn't know what to do.

**From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."**

"NO! NO THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Lily yelled horrified. He boy was about to die, just because he was there. "No, No, No" she seemed to keep muttering under her breathe. Everyone looked terrified and also horrified. That just wasn't fair at all.

**A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"**

**A blast of green light blazed through Harry's eyelids, and he heard something heavy fall to the ground beside him; the pain in his scar reached such a pitch that he retched, and then it diminished; terrified of what he was about to see, he opened his stinging eyes.**

**Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside him. He was dead.**

All the woman in the room started sobbing. All the men had pained expressions. Dumbledore swallowed and continued

**For a second that contained an eternity, Harry stared into Cedric's face, at his open gray eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised. And then, before Harry's mind had accepted what he was seeing, before he could feel anything but numb disbelief, he felt himself being pulled to his feet.**

"Harry, just witnessed a friend die. That is so sad, so so sad." Molly muttered everyone agreed the poor boy. He was only fourteen.

**The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and was dragging Harry toward the marble headstone. Harry saw the name upon it flickering in the wandlight before he was forced around and slammed against it.**

**TOM RIDDLE **

Dumbledore gasped, Everyone looked at him. "You don't want to know"

**The cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone. Harry could hear shallow, fast breathing from the depths of the hood; he struggled, and the man hit him - hit him with a hand that had a finger missing. And Harry realized who was under the hood. It was Wormtail.**

"Th-th-that bastard" James yelled he looked angrier than ever before

"I can't believe it, little Peter, a bloody murder." Sirius said in disbelief

Remus and Lily didn't talk, they were looking straight ahead with pained faces.

**"You!" he gasped.**

**But Wormtail, who had finished conjuring the ropes, did not reply; he was busy checking the tightness of the cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, rumbling over the knots. Once sure that Harry was bound so tightly to the headstone that he couldn't move an inch, Wormtail drew a length of some black material from the inside of his cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth; then, without a word, he turned from Harry and hurried away. Harry couldn't make a sound, nor could he see where Wormtail had gone; he couldn't turn his head to see beyond the headstone; he could see only what was right in front of him.**

**Cedric's body was lying some twenty feet away. Some way beyond him, glinting in the starlight, lay the Triwizard Cup. Harry's wand was on the ground at Cedric's feet. The bundle of robes that Harry had thought was a baby was close by, at the foot of the grave.**

**It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Harry watched it, and his scar seared with pain again . . . and he suddenly knew that he didn't want to see what was in those robes ... he didn't want that bundle opened...**

"Me neither" they all muttered

**He could hear noises at his feet. He looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied. Wormtail's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back within Harry's range of vision, and Harry saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water - Harry could hear it slopping around - and it was larger than any cauldron Harry had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in.**

**The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Now Wormtail was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling names beneath it. The large snake slithered away into the darkness.**

**The liquid in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Harry heard the high, cold voice again. "Hurry!"**

"No, please don't" Lily whispered "Stop, just stop"

**The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds.**

**"It is ready. Master."**

"Master, Master" all the friends off Peter muttered, "You disgust me Peter" Remus said darkly, they might have actually saw a flicker of the werewolf inside him

**"Now ..." said the cold voice.**

**Wormtail pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them, and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth.**

**It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind - but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face - no child alive ever had a face like that - flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.**

The room looked so, so, so sick. Molly actually ran to the toilet to be sick. No one spoke. They were too degusted in it. Albus eventually cleared his troat and began to read

**The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Wormtail's neck, and Wormtail lifted it. As he did so, his hood fell back, and Harry saw the look of revulsion on Wormtail's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. For one moment, Harry saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion. And then Wormtail lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Harry heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud.**

Some people shuddered

**Let it drown, Harry thought, his scar burning almost past endurance, please. . . let it drown. . .**

Most nodded even though they knew he didn't

**Wormtail was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.**

**"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"**

**The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. Horrified, Harry watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.**

**And now Wormtail was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs.**

**"Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given - you will - revive - your master. "**

"Oh please no, he's not going to, is he?" Everyone was so horrified to answer, so Moody did.

"Probably. Seems he's different from the Peter we know." He mumbled and everyone couldn't help but agree

**He stretched his right hand out in front of him - the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.**

**Harry realized what Wormtail was about to do a second before it happened - he closed his eyes as tightly as he could, but he could not block the scream that pierced the night, that went through Harry as though he had been stabbed with the dagger too. He heard something fall to the ground, heard Wormtail's anguished panting, then a sickening splash, as something was dropped into the cauldron. Harry couldn't stand to look . . . but the potion had turned a burning red; the light of it shone through Harry's closed eyelids. . . .**

**Wormtail was gasping and moaning with agony. Not until Harry felt Wormtail's anguished breath on his face did he realize that Wormtail was right in front of him.**

**"B-blood of the enemy . . . forcibly taken .. . you will. . . resurrect your foe."**

"Don't you bloody dare!" All three friend growled

**Harry could do nothing to prevent it, he was tied too tightly. . .. Squinting down, struggling hopelessly at the ropes binding him, he saw the shining silver dagger shaking in Wormtails remaining hand. He felt its point penetrate the crook of his right arm and blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.**

"The poor poor boy, What's he going to do." Molly muttered. No one answered

**He staggered back to the cauldron with Harrys blood. He poured it inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white. Wormtail, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, then slumped sideways and lay on the ground, cradling the bleeding stump of his arm, gasping and sobbing.**

"Good" Most muttered

**The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened. . . . Let it have drowned. Harry thought, let it have gone wrong. . . ?**

"Yeah please? Why don't you just go wrong."

**And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Harry, so that he couldn't see Wormtail or Cedric or anything but vapor hanging in the air. ... It's gone wrong, he thought. . . it's drowned. .. please . . . please let it be dead. ... But then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.**

"Oh Merlin" Lily said she was so white and she was also shaking.

**"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Wormtail, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master's head.**

**The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry . . . and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snakes with slits for nostrils . .**

**Lord Voldemort had risen again**

No one spoke for a long, long time. Trying to dissolve this. Until "What does it mean 'risen again' does that mean he died?" Frank asked finally

"No, I don't think it does. I think it just means he didn't have a body or something along those lines" Albus answered. He didn't really know what it meant but it was something like that. "Should I read the next chapter? He's also fourteen in this one too, it's only two chapters after the last."

"Yes, sir, I need to know what happened to my son."


	7. Prior Incantatem

"Ok, Mrs Potter. Everyone ready?" Everyone nodded. Not ready but they would never be ready. It was now or never.

**Wormtail approached Harry, who scrambled to find his feet, to support his own weight before the ropes were untied. Wormtail raised his new silver hand, pulled out the wad of material gagging Harry, and then, with one swipe, cut through the bonds tying Harry to the gravestone.**

"Why is he letting him go?" James asked surprised

**There was a split second, perhaps, when Harry might have considered running for it, but his injured leg shook under him as he stood on the overgrown grave,**

"He has injured leg, he can't walk on, that's just bloody brilliant" Sirius muttered darkly. This couldn't get any worse

** as the Death Eaters closed ranks, forming a tighter circle around him and Voldemort, so that the gaps where the missing Death Eaters should have stood were filled. **

"The death eaters must have arrived last chapter. This is not good." Frank spoke out

**Wormtail walked out of the circle to the place where Cedric's body lay and returned with Harry's wand, which he thrust roughly into Harry's hand without looking at him. Then Wormtail resumed his place in the circle of watching Death Eaters.**

"I can't believe it, he's one of them. He's a bloody stinking death eater" James said to Sirius, and he nodded. They couldn't believe what there friend had become

**"You have been taught how to duel. Harry Potter?" said Voldemort softly, his red eyes glinting through the darkness.**

"He's making him duel, he'll kill him, he's one of the most evil dark wizard and he's trying to duel a fourteen year old. He'll kill him, no doubt. Anyone could kill a fourteen year old. They are only children, they don't know how to handle these situations. I wouldn't be surprised if he'll just let him kill him" Lily mumbled

Everyone seemed to forget Harry lived, they were all expecting him to die, soon.

**At these words Harry remembered, as though from a former life, the dueling club at Hogwarts he had attended briefly two years ago. ... All he had learned there was the Disarming Spell, "Expelliarmus". . . and what use would it be to deprive Voldemort of his wand, even if he could, when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one? **

"My poor, poor son" James said he couldn't believe it.

"If the boy gets out of this, he's a miracle worker" Moody grunted, there was no way out.

**He had never learned anything that could possibly fit him for this. He knew he was facing the thing against which Moody had always warned . . . the unblockable Avada Kedavra curse - and Voldemort was right - his mother was not here to die for him this time. ... He was quite unprotected. . . .**

"What does he mean? His mother was not there to die for him this time?" Lily asked sharply.

Everyone looked at each other, "It mean that Voldemort was going to kill him at one point, but you died for him" Albus smiled sadly. This young mother, died for her child. Just like any other mother. It was quite understandable. Everyone looked sad and hurt, but also happy, this young woman, died for her child. She died for a good cause.

**"We bow to each other. Harry," said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face upturned to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed. . . . Dumbledore would like you to show manners. . . . Bow to death, Harry. ..."**

A lot of people hissed at that. That sick bastard.

**The Death Eaters were laughing again. Voldemorts lipless mouth was smiling. Harry did not bow. He was not going to let Voldemort play with him before killing him ... he was not going to give him that satisfaction. . . .**

People smiled, _brave boy_ they all thought. They didn't know if they could do this now, never mind when they were fourteen.

**"I said, bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand - and Harry felt his spine curve as though a huge, invisible hand were bending him ruthlessly forward, and the Death Eaters laughed harder than ever.**

"How is that funny? That's not funny at all" Alice whispered, but everyone heard her

"No, Mrs Longbottom, you're right. That isn't funny at all." Albus agreed

**"Very good," said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down upon Harry lifted too. "And now you face me, like a man . . . straight-backed and proud, the way your father died. . . .**

Everyone hissed, and a lot of people tensed. How dare he bring James in to this. How dare he.

**"And now - we duel."**

**Voldemort raised his wand, and before Harry could do anything to defend himself, before he could even move, he had been hit again by the Cruciatus Curse. The pain was so intense, so all-consuming, that he no longer knew where he was. . . . White-hot knives were piercing every inch of his skin, his head was surely going to burst with pain, he was screaming more loudly than he'd ever screamed in his life –**

Everyone was in an uproar. "He is so sick"

"Did you hear that, it said he'd been hit with it 'again'"

"I want to kill him"

"My poor boy"

"HE'S ONLY FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE."

"HE'S ONLY TURNED A TEENAGER"

**And then it stopped. Harry rolled over and scrambled to his feet; he was shaking as uncontrollably as Wormtail had done when his hand had been cut off; he staggered sideways into the wall of watching Death Eaters, and they pushed him away, back toward Voldemort.**

"Wow, he can stand after that? Most people can't move"

"Impressive" Moody grunted. This boy sounded good.

**"A little break," said Voldemort, the slit-like nostrils dilating with excitement, "a little pause . . . That hurt, didn't it. Harry? You don't want me to do that again, do you?"**

**Harry didn't answer. He was going to die like Cedric, those pitiless red eyes were telling him so ... he was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it... but he wasn't going to play along. He wasn't going to obey Voldemort... he wasn't going to beg. . . .**

Everyone smiled, to be honest. They were so proud. Even after Crucio. This boy, this fourteen year old boy. He was going to not give in, because that's what Voldemort wanted.

"He's defiantly a Gryffindor" Sirius grinned, and a lot of people did too. _Yes that's true_ all of them thought

**"I asked you whether you want me to do that again," said Voldemort softly. "Answer me! Imperial"**

"No! Not another unforgivable curse, that just not fair at all."

"No one can push Voldemort's off, No one's done it before." Moody sigh. He felt sorry for this boy.

Everyone just sat there they couldn't say anything. But when they looked at Dumbledore he was smiling and all of them agreed this was not something to smile about.

**And Harry felt, for the third time in his life, the sensation that his mind had been wiped of all thought. . . . Ah, it was bliss, not to think, it was as though he were floating, dreaming ...just answer no ... say no ... just answer no. .. .**

**I will not, said a stronger voice, in the back of his head, I won't answer. . . .**

Everyone sat stunned, "Di-did he? Did he just- is he trying fight back?" Frank said in a real awed voice. No one could believe it. This was why Dumbledore was smiling.

**Just answer no. . . .**

**I won't do it, I won't say it. ...**

"I can't believe it, I really can't" James said in awed of his own son. This boy was a miracle

**Just answer no. . . .**

**"I WON'T!"**

Oh Merlin, this boy. Was just. They didn't even know. But he was amazing. This boy was truly amazing. They just couldn't believe it. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus sat with grins that would surely split there face open. This was there son, Godson, and near enough nephew. They couldn't believe this was the little boy, they had just left a few hours ago. He just seemed to be too good to be true.

**And these words burst from Harry's mouth; they echoed through the graveyard, and the dream state was lifted as suddenly as though cold water had been thrown over him - back rushed the aches that the Cruciatus Curse had left all over his body - back rushed the realization of where he was, and what he was facing. . . .**

**"You won't?" said Voldemort quietly, and the Death Eaters were not laughing now. **

Now the whole room was laughing, this fourteen year old boy that shown Voldemort up in front of all his Death Eaters. _You're brave, Harry, No doubt about it. _They all sighed

**"You won't say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die. . . .** **Perhaps another little dose of pain?"**

**Voldemort raised his wand, but this time Harry was ready; with the reflexes born of his Quidditch training, he flung himself sideways onto the ground; he rolled behind the marble headstone of Voldemort's father, and he heard it crack as the curse missed him.**

"Impressive" Moody was truly impressed with his boy. He could see how he was somewhat important.

"Did you hear that 'reflexes born of his Quidditch training' see he's the player I said he would be" James grinned goofy. Everyone laughed, trust James to say this.

"Wait, sir? Did you say he rolled behind the marble headstone of Voldemort's father?" Remus asked curiously. Everyone looked at Dumbledore.

"Yes, indeed. I was wondering if Harry already knew this, but it seems he did."

**"We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry," said Voldemort's soft, cold voice, drawing nearer, as the Death Eaters laughed. "You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now, Harry? Come out, Harry . . . come out and play, then ... it will be quick ... it might even be painless ... I would not know... I have never died. . . ."**

"You should have though, you should be well dead."

**Harry crouched behind the headstone and knew the end had come. There was no hope ... no help to be had. And as he heard Voldemort draw nearer still, he knew one thing only, and it was beyond fear or reason: He was not going to die crouching here like a child playing hide-and-seek; he was not going to die kneeling at Voldemort s feet... he was going to die upright like his father, and he was going to die trying to defend himself, even if no defense was possible. . . .**

Everyone couldn't help it, the smile's on their faces were big, they couldn't help but smile at his boy's bravery. His mind was not a fourteen year old, it was much older. _As if he had been though stuff like this before _they all thought and then there smile's faded. That was it, he had been through it. That was the answer.

**Before Voldemort could stick his snakelike face around the headstone. Harry stood up ... he gripped his wand tightly in his hand, thrust it out in front of him, and threw himself around the headstone, facing Voldemort. Voldemort was ready. As Harry shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Voldemort cried, "Avada Kedavra!"**

Remus gasped, "He lives, I know he does, and so do you" he beamed at all the faces. Some still looked confused so he explained more "remember when we were back at the Burrow, he said 'Expelliarmus saved him from Voldemort two year ago' well this would be that time." Everyone was beaming now. They couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, well I stick to what I said, the boys a miracle worker." Moody grunted

**A jet of green light issued from Voldemorts wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's - they met in midair – **

Everyone gasped. _What the hell?_

**and suddenly Harry's wand was vibrating as though an electric charge were surging through it; his hand seized up around it; he couldn't have released it if he'd wanted to - and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold.**

"I was right, they are brother wands." Dumbledore said to all the awed faces

** Harry, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Voldemort's long white fingers too were gripping a wand that was shaking and vibrating.**

Everyone looked excited, what was happening, what was going to happen

**And then - nothing could have prepared Harry for this - he felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, their wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort's father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves. . . . The Death Eaters were shouting; they were asking Voldemort for instructions; they were closing in, reforming the circle around Harry and Voldemort, the snake slithering at their heels, some of them drawing their wands -The golden thread connecting Harry and Voldemort splintered; though the wands remained connected, a thousand more beams arced high over Harry and Voldemort, crisscrossing all around them, until they were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light, beyond which the Death Eaters circled like jackals, their cries strangely muffled now. . . .**

"This is so strange" Remus muttered. James and Sirius looked interested now, this was something Remus didn't know about.

**"Do nothing!" Voldemort shrieked to the Death Eaters, and Harry saw his red eyes wide with astonishment at what was happening, saw him fighting to break the thread of light still connecting his wand with Harry's; Harry held onto his wand more tightly, with both hands, and the golden thread remained unbroken. "Do nothing unless I command you!" Voldemort shouted to the Death Eaters.**

"Pride" Alice said load and clear sounding amused just like everyone else now.

**And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air. ... It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Harry and Voldemort. It was a sound Harry recognized, though he had heard it only once before in his life: phoenix song.**

"Isn't every phoenix song unique? Sir?" Lily asked

"Yes, Indeed. Mrs Potter." He asked with a smile

"Then how has Harry heard it sir? The only way he would have heard it, is if he knows this certain phoenix." She stated.

"Oh, I think he does," with a smile leaving them all confused.

**It was the sound of hope to Harry. . . the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard in his life. . . . He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just around him. ... It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore, and it was almost as though a friend were speaking in his ear. . . .**

Dumbledore smiled at this, as with everyone else. That was a nice thing to hear.

**Don't break the connection.**

**I know. Harry told the music, I know I mustn't. . . but no sooner had he thought it, than the thing became much harder to do. His wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever . . . and now the beam between him and Voldemort changed too ... it was as though large beads of light were sliding up and down the thread connecting the wands - Harry felt his wand give a shudder under his hand as the light beads began to slide slowly and steadily his way. . . . The direction of the beams movement was now toward him, from Voldemort, and he felt his wand shudder angrily. . . .**

Everyone tensed now, he'll be dead if that touches.

**As the closest bead of light moved nearer to Harrys wand tip, the wood beneath his fingers grew so hot he feared it would burst into flame. The closer that bead moved, the harder Harry's wand vibrated; he was sure his wand would not survive contact with it; it felt as though it was about to shatter under his fingers -He concentrated every last particle of his mind upon forcing the bead back toward Voldemort, his ears full of phoenix song, his eyes furious, fixed . . . and slowly, very slowly, the beads quivered to a halt, and then, just as slowly, they began to move the other way . . . and it was Voldemort's wand that was vibrating extra-hard now . . .**

"Wow" everyone in the room muttered they couldn't believe this. But they were starting to think anything this boy done, wouldn't surprise them.

**Voldemort who looked astonished, and almost fearful. . . .**

Everyone was grinning. "He's terrified" Frank stated proudly

**One of the beads of light was quivering, inches from the tip of Voldemorts wand. Harry didn't understand why he was doing it, didn't know what it might achieve . . . but he now concentrated as he had never done in his life on forcing that bead of light right back into Voldemort s wand . . . and slowly . . . very slowly ... it moved along the golden thread ... it trembled for a moment. . . and then it connected. . . .**

"I am so proud of my son. So, so proud" James announced to the amusement of the room. They were all proud too.

**At once, Voldemorts wand began to emit echoing screams of pain . . . then - Voldemort's red eyes widened with shock - a dense, smoky hand flew out of the tip of it and vanished . . . the ghost of the hand he had made Wormtail. . . more shouts of pain . . . and then something much larger began to blossom from Voldemorts wand tip, a great, grayish something, that looked as though it were made of the solidest, densest smoke. ... It was a head . . . now a chest and arms . . . the torso of Cedric Diggory.**

Everyone gasped except Dumbledore, he had expected this, "Sir, what the Merlin is happening?" Remus asked wide-eyed

"Prior Incantato" he replied simply

"Sir? Isn't that the spell that make you see the last spell preformed"

"Yes, Indeed, Mr Lupin. It seems Harry is forcing, Voldemort to show the spells in reverse, it won't stop until someone breaks the connection" Everyone stared wide-eyed eager to hear.

**If ever Harry might have released his wand from shock, it would have been then, but instinct kept him clutching his wand tightly, so that the thread of golden light remained unbroken, even though the thick gray ghost of Cedric Diggory (was it a ghost? it looked so solid) emerged in its entirety from the end of Voldemort s wand, as though it were squeezing itself out of a very narrow tunnel. . . and this shade of Cedric stood up, and looked up and down the golden thread of light, and spoke.**

**"Hold on. Harry," it said.**

"Should it be able to do that?" Lily asked uncertain

"No, but it seems your son, is, well, extraordinary." He smiled kindly and she beamed back

**Its voice was distant and echoing. Harry looked at Voldemort ... his wide red eyes were still shocked ... he had no more expected this than Harry had . . . and, very dimly.**

**Harry heard the frightened yells of the Death Eaters, prowling around the edges of the golden dome. .**

**More screams of pain from the wand . . . and then something else emerged from its tip ...**

**the dense shadow of a second head, quickly followed by arms and torso ... an old man Harry had seen only in a dream was now pushing himself out of the end of the wand just as Cedric had done . . . and his ghost, or his shadow, or whatever it was, fell next to Cedric's, and surveyed Harry and Voldemort, and the golden web, and the connected wands, with mild surprise, leaning on his walking stick. . . .**

**"He was a real wizard, then?" the old man said, his eyes on Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did. . . . You fight him, boy. . . ."**

"Muggle" Many whispered

**But already, yet another head was emerging ... and this head, gray as a smoky statue, was a woman's. . . . Harry, both arms shaking now as he fought to keep his wand still, saw her drop to the ground and straighten up like the others, staring. . . .**

**The shadow of Bertha Jorkins surveyed the battle before her with wide eyes.**

"Bertha Jorkins" most gasped, they couldn't believe she died.

**"Don't let go, now!" she cried, and her voice echoed like Cedrics as though from very far away. "Don't let him get you, Harry - don't let go!"**

"He won't" James and Lily said in union and then smiled

**She and the other two shadowy figures began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it... and Voldemort's dead victims whispered as they circled the duelers, whispered words of encouragement to Harry, and hissed words Harry couldn't hear to Voldemort.**

Everyone smiled at this. They couldn't believe this was happening. Actually they could, since it was Harry.

**And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemorts wand . . . and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be ... he knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when Cedric had appeared from the wand . . . knew, because the man appearing was the one he'd thought of more than any other tonight. . . .**

Lily and Remus groaned, they had expected this too.

"What? What is it?" everyone asked quickly

"James" Lily whispered and everyone fell silent.

**The smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy hair fell to the ground as Bertha had done, straightened up, and looked at him . . . and Harry, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his father.**

Some sighed, some groaned, some smiled and some had tears streaming down there face. This was the only time he had to talk to his mum and dad since they died. They didn't even know when they died.

**"Your mother's coming . . ." he said quietly. "She wants to see you ... it will be all right... hold on. . . ."**

Lily was sobbing in to James shirt, she didn't know what she was going to say, but she was so sad this was the only way to talk to her soon. When he was fighting for his life.

**And she came. . . first her head, then her body... a young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort's wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like her husband. She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear...**

**"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments . . . but we will give you time. . . you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts ... do you understand, Harry?"**

"This is amazing" McGonnagall gasped "Even in death, you still protect you only son" she smiled at the couple who had tears running down their faces. This was amazing.

**"Yes," Harry gasped, fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.**

**"Harry . . ." whispered the figure of Cedric, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents, ..."**

**"I will," said Harry, his face screwed up with the effort of holding the wand.**

"Good, least they will have a body to bury" James whispered to himself.

**"Do it now," whispered his father's voice, "be ready to run . . . do it now. ..."**

**"NOW!" Harry yelled; he didn't think he could have held on for another moment anyway -he pulled his wand upward with an almighty wrench, and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died - but the shadowy figures of Voldemort's victims did not disappear - they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Harry from his gaze –**

Everyone smiled, this was impossible but it was Harry, he seemed to make impossible things happen.

**And Harry ran as he had never run in his life, knocking two stunned Death Eaters aside as he passed; he zigzagged behind headstones, feeling their curses following him, hearing them hit the headstones - he was dodging curses and graves, pelting toward Cedric's body, no longer aware of the pain in his leg, his whole being concentrated on what he had to do -**

"Oh Merlin, I forgot he had an injured leg" gasped Lily.

"Yeah, and he's had two unforgivables on him too, but he's tough. He'll do it." Moody said softer than anyone had ever heard him.

**"Stun him!" he heard Voldemort scream.**

**Ten feet from Cedric, Harry dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red light and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it. Gripping his wand more tightly, he dashed out from behind the angel –**

**"Impedimenta!" he bellowed, pointing his wand wildly over his shoulder at the Death Eaters running at him.**

**From a muffled yell, he thought he had stopped at least one of them, but there was no time to stop and look; he jumped over the cup and dived as he heard more wand blasts behind him; more jets of light flew over his head as he fell, stretching out his hand to grab Cedric's arm...**

**"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!" shrieked Voldemort. Harry's hand had closed on Cedric's wrist; one tombstone stood between him and Voldemort, but Cedric was too heavy to carry, and the cup was out of reach -Voldemort's red eyes flamed in the darkness. Harry saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand.**

**"Accio!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup. It flew into the air and soared toward him. Harry caught it by the handle -He heard Voldemort's scream of fury at the same moment that he felt the jerk behind his navel that meant the Portkey had worked - it was speeding him away in a whirl of wind and color, and Cedric along with him. . . . They were going back.**

They all let out a breathe of relief and then they all smiled. They couldn't believe it. They just couldn't. A fourteen year old boy.

They looked at Dumbledore and he was beaming "Well I think that we will all agree. This boy. Is remarkable." They all agreed, he really was.


	8. The Lost Prophecy

"So, Albus what's the next chapter?" McGonagall asked clearly

"Harry's fifteen." Everyone nodded and got ready for what might come.

**Harry's feet hit solid ground; his knees buckled a little and the golden wizard's head fell with a resounding clunk to the floor. He looked around and saw that he had arrived in Dumbledore's office.**

"Why's he there?" Aberforth asked curious what his brother was up to now.

**Everything seemed to have repaired itself during the Headmasters absence. The delicate silver instruments stood once more on the spindle-legged tables, puffing and whirring serenely. The portraits of the headmasters and headmistresses were snoozing in their frames, heads lolling back in armchairs or against the edge of the; picture. Harry looked through the window. There was a cool line of pale green along the horizon: dawn was approaching.**

"It's late" Lily said, and everyone's looked at the book thoughtfully. What was happening?

**The silence and the stillness, broken only by the occasional grunt or snuffle of a sleeping portrait, was unbearable to him. If his surroundings could have reflected the feelings inside him, the pictures would have been screaming in pain. He walked around the quiet, beautiful office, breathing quickly, trying not to think. But he had to think . . . there was no escape . . .**

"What happened?" Lily asked curiously, she didn't want her son he be screaming in pain like he said the pictures would.

**It was his fault Sirius had died; it was all his fault. **

Many people gulped, they didn't want to hear this, Sirius looked at the book stone faced. Lily was trying to comfort James who seemed to be screaming in pain inside too.

**If he, Harry, had not been stupid enough to fall for Voldemort's trick, if he had not been so convinced that what he had seen in his dream was real, if he had only opened his mind to the possibility that Voldemort was, as Hermione had said, banking on Harry's love of playing the hero . . .**

** It was unbearable, he would not think about it, he could not stand it . . . there was a terrible hollow inside him he did not want to feel or examine, a dark hole where Sirius had been, where Sirius had vanished;**

"It sounds like you were close Padfoot" Remus whispered. This seemed to cheer Sirius and James up. They liked the idea of Sirius being close to Harry.

** he did not want to have to be alone with that great, silent space, he could not stand it - '**

**A picture behind him gave a particularly loud grunting snore, and a cool voice said, 'Ah . . . Harry Potter . . .' Phineas Nigellus gave a long yawn, stretching his arms as he surveyed Harry out of shrewd, narrow eyes.**

"Oh Merlin. No. He says anything to upset Harry more, I'll just- I don't even know, he just better not hurt Harry more."

** 'And what brings you here in the early hours of the morning?' said Phineas eventually. This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful Headmaster. Or has Dumbledore sent you here? Oh, don't tell me . . .' He gave another shuddering yawn. 'Another message for my worthless great-great-grandson?'**

"Trust me, I'm not too fond of you either, so please just shut up." Sirius said though narrowed eyes.

**Harry could not speak. Phineas Nigellus did not know that Sirius was dead, but Harry could not tell him. To say it aloud would be to make it final, absolute, irretrievable.**

"5 stages of loss. He's in denial just now." Lily muttered and a few people nodded and a few sniffed back tears.

**A few more of the portraits had stirred now. Terror of being interrogated made Harry stride across the room and seize the doorknob.**

**It would not turn. He was shut in.**

"Sir? Why have you locked him in? Don't you think he should go calm down? If he's like Lily, he needs time to calm down." James told Albus, but he just shrugged.

"I don't know what I'm doing Mr Potter. I think I need to talk with Harry"

**'I hope this means,' said the corpulent, red-nosed wizard who hung on the wall behind the Headmasters desk, 'that Dumbledore will soon be back among us?'**

"Why were you gone sir? What happened?" Lily asked sharply

Albus laughed quietly "I don't know Mrs Potter, this hasn't happened yet for me." And Lily turned red.

**Harry turned. The wizard was surveying him with great interest. Harry nodded. He tugged again on the doorknob behind his back, but it remained immovable.**

**'Oh good,' said the wizard. 'It has been very dull without him, very dull indeed.'**

**He settled himself on the throne-like chair on which he had been painted and smiled benignly upon Harry.**

**'Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, as I am sure you know,' he said comfortably. 'Oh yes. Holds you in great esteem.'**

Everyone smiled at this, _yes I'm sure he does_

**The guilt filling the whole of Harry's chest like some monstrous, weighty parasite, now writhed and squirmed. Harry could not stand this, he could not stand being himself any more . . . he had never felt more trapped inside his own head and body, never wished so intensely that he could be somebody, anybody else . . .**

"I would want to be someone else, every day. If I was him." Alice said quietly

** The empty fireplace burst into emerald green flame, making Harry leap away from the door, staring at the man spinning inside the grate. As Dumbledore's tall form unfolded itself from the fire, the wizards and witches on the surrounding walls jerked awake, many of them giving cries of welcome.**

**Thank you,' said Dumbledore softly.**

**He did not look at Harry at first, but walked over to the perch beside the door and withdrew, from an inside pocket of his robes, the tiny, ugly, featherless Fawkes, whom he placed gently on the tray of soft ashes beneath the golden post where the full-grown Fawkes usually stood.**

**'Well, Harry,' said Dumbledore, finally turning away from the baby bird, 'you will be pleased to hear that none of your fellow students are going to suffer lasting damage from the night's events.'**

**Harry tried to say, 'Good,' but no sound came out. It seemed to him that Dumbledore was reminding him of the amount of damage he had caused, and although Dumbledore was for once looking at him directly, and although his expression was kindly rather than accusatory, Harry could not bear to meet his eyes.**

**'Madam Pomfrey is patching everybody up,' said Dumbledore 'Nymphadora Tonks may need to spend a little time in St Mungos, but it seems she will make a full recovery.'**

"I really want to know what happened." Sirius sighed, many nodded

**Harry contented himself with nodding at the carpet, which was growing lighter as the sky outside grew paler. He was sure all the: portraits around the room were listening closely to every wore! Dumbledore spoke, wondering where Dumbledore and Harry had been, and why there had been injuries.**

"Injuries" Lily muttered "Oh great"

**'I know how you're feeling, Harry,' said Dumbledore very quietly.**

**'No, you don't,' said Harry, and his voice was suddenly loud and strong; white-hot anger leapt inside him; Dumbledore knew nothing about his feelings.**

"Yeah, I do Harry. I really do." Albus said softly. And Aberforth grunted in disbelief. Everyone eyed the two carefully but didn't say anything.

**'You see, Dumbledore?' said Phineas Nigellus slyly. 'Never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own - '**

"Just shut up" Sirius nearly yelled

**"That's enough, Phineas," said Dumbledore.**

"Thank you Sir," Sirius smiled kindly

**Harry turned his back on Dumbledore and stared determinedly out of the window. He could see the Quidditch stadium in the distance. Sirius had appeared there once, disguised as the shaggy black dog, so he could watch Harry play . . . he had probably come to see whether Harry was as good as James had been . . . Harry had never asked him . . .**

"Probably" Sirius teased James, who just rolled his eyes.

**There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry,' said Dumbledore's voice. 'On the contrary . . . the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.'**

**Harry felt the white-hot anger lick his insides, blazing in the terrible emptiness, filling him with the desire to hurt Dumbledore for his calmness and his empty words.**

**'My greatest strength, is it?' said Harry, his voice shaking as he stared out at the Quidditch stadium, no longer seeing it. 'You haven't got a clue . . . you don't know . . ."**

**'What don't I know?' asked Dumbledore calmly.**

"Sir, I think the calmness will turn him angry" Lily cringed, she didn't want to know what happened next

**It was too much. Harry turned around, shaking with rage.**

**'I don't want to talk about how I feel, all right?'**

**'Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human - '**

**'THEN - I - DON'T - WANT - TO - BE - HUMAN!' Harry roared, and he seized the delicate silver instrument from the spindle-legged table beside him and flung it across the room; it shattered into a hundred tiny pieces against the wall. **

A few people gasped, they hadn't expected that, Albus chuckled, it seems Harry wasn't afraid to say what he wanted in front of him.

"He flung your stuff" Lily said with wide-eyes. She couldn't believe Harry had been so disrespectful.

"He just witnessed the death of his Godfather, I think you would be the same Mrs Potter" he said with a sad smile

**Several of the pictures let out yells of anger and fright, and the portrait of Armando Dippet said, 'Really!'**

**'I DON'T CARE!' Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. 'I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANY MORE - '**

Everyone looked at each other, what else had this poor boy been though? Who else had he seen die? If they were in his place they would want out to. They would want it to end to. After all he was only fifteen

**He seized the table on which the silver instrument had stood and threw that, too. It broke apart on the floor and the legs rolled in different directions.**

**'You do care,' said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. 'You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.'**

"Sir? Really?" James said sounding agitated with his old headmaster.

"I'm sure it will be explained Mr Potter."

** 'I - DON'T!' Harry screamed, so loudly that he felt his throat might tear, and for a second he wanted to rush at Dumbledore and break him, too; shatter that calm old face, shake him, hurt him, make him feel some tiny part of the horror inside himself.**

**'Oh, yes, you do,' said Dumbledore, still more calmly. 'You have now lost your mother, your father, and the closest thing to a parent you have ever known. Of course you care.'**

"Sir? Stop it, please?" Lily asked

Albus stopped reading for a second and smiled sadly at her "I will, soon I hope, but I'm sure there is a reason to all of this."

**'YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL!' Harry roared. 'YOU - STANDING THERE - YOU - '**

**But words were no longer enough, smashing things was no more help; he wanted to run, he wanted to keep running and never look back, he wanted to be somewhere he could not see the clear blue eyes staring at him, that hatefully calm old face. He turned on his heel and ran to the door, seized the doorknob again and wrenched at it.**

**But the door would not open.**

**Harry turned back to Dumbledore.**

**'Let me out,' he said. He was shaking from head to foot.**

**'No,' said Dumbledore simply.**

"Albus!" McGonagall shouted "What are you doing to the poor boy"

** For a few seconds they stared at each other.**

** 'Let me out,' Harry said again.**

** 'No,' Dumbledore repeated.**

**'If you don't - if you keep me in here - if you don't let me - '**

**'By all means continue destroying my possessions,' said Dumbledore serenely. 'I daresay I have too many.'**

**He walked around his desk and sat down behind it, watching Harry.**

**'Let me out,' Harry said yet again, in a voice that was cold and almost as calm as Dumbledore's.**

**'Not until I have had my say,' said Dumbledore.**

**'Do you - do you think I want to - do you think I give a - I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY!' Harry roared. 'I don't want to hear anything you've got to say!'**

**'You will,' said Dumbledore steadily. 'Because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it.'**

"What are you talking about?" Frank asked though narrowed eyes.

**'What are you talking - ?'**

**'It is my fault that Sirius died,' said Dumbledore clearly. 'Or should I say, almost entirely my fault - I will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should never have believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you to the Department of Mysteries, and you would never have been tricked into going there tonight. And Sirius would not have had to come after you. That blame lies with me, and with me alone.'**

He stopped for a moment while everyone soaked this up. So Voldemort lured Harry to the Department of Mysteries and Sirius went after him and he died there. A few people frowned at the thought

**Harry was still standing with his hand on the doorknob but was unaware of it. He was gazing at Dumbledore, hardly breathing, listening yet barely understanding what he was hearing.**

**'Please sit down,' said Dumbledore. It was not an order, it was a request.**

**Harry hesitated, then walked slowly across the room now littered with silver cogs and fragments of wood, and took the seat facing Dumbledore's desk.**

**'Am I to understand,' said Phineas Nigellus slowly from Harry's left, 'that my great-great-grandson - the last of the Blacks - is dead?'**

"The last black? So you telling me, my mother finally dies?" he pronounced happily. "I couldn't be happier. Even if I'm dead." He grinned and a few chuckled at him

**'Yes, Phineas,' said Dumbledore.**

**'I don't believe it,' said Phineas brusquely.**

**Harry turned his head in time to see Phineas marching out of his portrait and knew that he had gone to visit his other painting in Grimmauld Place. He would walk, perhaps, from portrait to portrait, calling for Sirius through the house . . .**

"Why would I be in that house?" he pondered suspiciously

**'Harry, I owe you an explanation,' said Dumbledore. 'An explanation of an old man's mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young . . . and I seem to have forgotten, lately . . .'**

**The sun was rising properly now; there was a rim of dazzling orange visible over the mountains and the sky above it was colourless and bright. The light fell upon Dumbledore, upon the silver of his eyebrows and beard, upon the lines gouged deeply into his lace.**

**'I guessed, fifteen years ago,' said Dumbledore, 'when I saw the scar on your forehead, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort.'**

"Oh, really? I had no idea" Sirius said sarcastically.

**'You've told me this before, Professor,' said Harry bluntly. He did not care about being rude. He did not care about anything very much any more.**

**'Yes,' said Dumbledore apologetically. 'Yes, but you see - it is necessary to start with your scar. For it became apparent, shortly after you rejoined the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scar was giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you, or else feeling powerful emotion.'**

"Oh, so that's how it works" Lily sighed, she had guessed but this was the real answer.

**'I know,' said Harry wearily.**

**'And this ability of yours - to detect Voldemort's presence, even when he is disguised, and to know what he is feeling when his emotions are roused - has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and his full powers.'**

**Harry did not bother to nod. He knew all of this already.**

**'More recently,' said Dumbledore, 'I became concerned that Voldemort might realise that this connection between you exists. Sure enough, there came a time when you entered so far into his mind and thoughts that he sensed your presence. I am speaking, of course, of the night when you witnessed the attack on Mr Weasley'**

"What? What is he talking about? What attack?" Molly asked franticly, but no one knew, so no one could say. No one knew.

**'Yeah, Snape told me,' Harry muttered.**

"Why would Snape be near my son?" James growled low and dangerously.

**'Professor Snape, Harry' Dumbledore corrected him quietly. **

"Professor? You named him a Professer?" Lily said quietly while James was fuming.

**'But did you not wonder why it was not I who explained this to you? Why I did not teach you Occlumency? Why I had not so much as looked at you for months?'**

"You haven't looked at him in months?" Lily said more suspiciously.

**Harry looked up. He could see now that Dumbledore looked sad and tired.**

**'Yeah,' Harry mumbled. 'Yeah, I wondered.'**

**'You see,' Dumbledore continued, 'I believed it could not be long before Voldemort attempted to force his way into your mind, to manipulate and misdirect your thoughts, and I was not eager to give him more incentives to do so. I was sure that if he realised that our relationship was - or had ever been - closer than that of headmaster and pupil, he would seize his chance to use you as a means to spy on me. I feared the uses to which he would put you, the possibility that he might try and possess you. Harry, I believe I was right to think that Voldemort would have made use of you in such a way. On those rare occasions when we had close contact, I thought I saw a shadow of him stir behind your eyes . . .'**

"that is just plain creepy" Sirius muttered and everyone nodded

** Harry remembered the feeling that a dormant snake had risen in him, ready to strike, in those moments when he and Dumbledore had made eye-contact.**

"and that is even more"

** 'Voldemort's aim in possessing you, as he demonstrated tonight, would not have been my destruction. It would have been yours. He hoped, when he possessed you briefly a short while ago, that I would sacrifice you in the hope of killing him. So you see, I have been trying, in distancing myself from you, to protect you, Harry. An old man's mistake . . ."**

"He possessed Harry that night" Lily muttered and everyone looked fully revolted

**He sighed deeply. Harry was letting the words wash over him. He would have been so interested to know all this a few months ago, but now it was meaningless compared to the gaping chasm inside him that was the loss of Sirius; none of it mattered . . .**

"Please, just listen Harry" Sirius sighed heavily.

**'Sirius told me you felt Voldemort awake inside you the very night that you had the vision of Arthur Weasley's attack. I knew at once that my worst fears were correct: Voldemort had realised he could use you. In an attempt to arm you against Voldemort s assaults on your mind, I arranged Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape.'**

"You better be joking" James growled. But he knew he wasn't joking.

** He paused. Harry watched the sunlight, which was sliding slowly across the polished surface of Dumbledore's desk, illuminate a silver ink pot and a handsome scarlet quill. Harry could tell that the portraits all around them were awake and listening raptly to Dumbledore's explanation; he could hear the occasional rustle of robes, the slight clearing of a throat. Phineas Nigellus had still not returned . . .**

**'Professor Snape discovered,' Dumbledore resumed, 'that you had been dreaming about the door to the Department of Mysteries for months. Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body; and as he dwelled on the door, so did you, though you did not know what it meant.**

"All of this, over a stupid prophecy." Lily said clearly. Shaking her head, she thought about it, this was unreal. All of this over a prophecy that was most likely useless.

**'And then you saw Rookwood, who worked in the Department of Mysteries before his arrest, telling Voldemort what we had known all along - that the prophecies held in the Ministry of Magic are**

**heavily protected. Only the people to whom they refer can lilt them from the shelves without suffering madness: in this case, either Voldemort himself would have to enter the Ministry of Magic, and risk revealing himself at last - or else you would have to take it for him. It became a matter of even greater urgency that you should master Occlumency.'**

"So this prophecy is about Voldemort and Harry?" Remus said nodding along with the information.

**'But I didn't,' muttered Harry. He said it aloud to try and ease the dead weight of guilt inside him: a confession must surely relieve some of the terrible pressure squeezing his heart. 'I didn't practise, I didn't bother, I could've stopped myself having those dreams, Hermione kept telling me to do it, if I had he'd never have been able to show me where to go, and - Sirius wouldn't - 'Sirius wouldn't - '**

**Something was erupting inside Harry's head: a need to justify himself, to explain - '**

**'I tried to check he'd really taken Sirius, I went to Umbridge's office, I spoke to Kreacher in the fire and he said Sirius wasn't there, he said he'd gone!'**

**'Kreacher lied,' said Dumbledore calmly. 'You are not his master, he could lie to you without even needing to punish himself. Kreacher intended you to go to the Ministry of Magic.'**

** 'He - he sent me on purpose?'**

"That rotten elf!" Sirius erupted.

**'Oh yes. Kreacher, I am afraid, has been serving more than one master for months.'**

**'How?' said Harry blankly. 'He hasn't been out of Grimmauld Place for years.'**

"So I'm at Grimmauld Place, and so was Harry? Great. Bloody great" Sirius muttered darkly

**'Kreacher seized his opportunity shortly before Christmas,' said Dumbledore, 'when Sirius, apparently, shouted at him to "get out". He took Sirius at his word, and interpreted this as an order to leave the house. He went to the only Black family member for whom he had any respect left . . . Black's cousin Narcissa, sister of Bellatrix and wife of Lucius Malfoy.'**

"That sneaky little ba – " but was cut off by Remus. "To be honest that was your fault. You know you need to give them exactly what they need to do, don't let them have loopholes. Especially Kreacher.

**'How do you know all this?' Harry said. His heart was beating very fast. He felt sick. He remembered worrying about Kreacher's odd absence over Christmas, remembered him turning up again in the attic**

**'Kreacher told me last night,' said Dumbledore. 'You see, when** **you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realised that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place.**

"Please, don't tell me we were close enough to talk" Sirius muttered disgusted, he talked to Snape.

**'When, however, you did not return from your trip into the Forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort's. He alerted certain Order members at once.'**

**Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and continued, 'Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin were at Headquarters when he made contact. All agreed to go to your aid at once. Professor Snape requested that Sirius remain behind, as he needed somebody to remain at Headquarters to tell me what had happened, for I was due there at any moment. In the meantime he, Professor Snape, intended to search the Forest for you.**

**'But Sirius did not wish to remain behind while the others went to search for you. He delegated to Kreacher the task of telling me what had happened. And so it was that when I arrived in Grimmauld Place shortly after they had all left for the Ministry, it was the elf who told me - laughing fit to burst - where Sirius had gone.'**

**'He was laughing?' said Harry in a hollow voice.**

"I really, really, hate that elf." He muttered darkly.

**'Oh, yes,' said Dumbledore. 'You see, Kreacher was not able to betray us totally. He is not Secret Keeper for the Order, he could not give the Malfoy's our whereabouts, or tell them any of the Order's confidential plans that he had been forbidden to reveal. He was bound by the enchantments of his kind, which is to say that he could not disobey a direct order from his master, Sirius. But he gave Narcissa information of the sort that is very valuable lo Voldemort, yet must have seemed much too trivial for Sirius to think of banning him from repeating it.'**

**'Like what?' said Harry.**

**'Like the fact that the person Sirius cared most about in the world was you,' said Dumbledore quietly. 'Like the fact that you were coming to regard Sirius as a mixture of father and brother. **

Everyone smiled sadly, it was nice, what he had been to Harry but now apparently the only parent in Harry's life, was now gone.

**Voldemort knew already, of course, that Sirius was in the Order, and that you knew where he was - but Kreacher's information made him realise that the one person for whom you would go to any lengths to rescue was Sirius Black.'**

"Did I mention how I hate that elf" Sirius said. He was touched of the way Harry thought about him, but now he was sad that, that had been taking away.

**Harry's lips were cold and numb.**

**'So . . . when I asked Kreacher if Sirius was there last night . . .'**

**The Malfoy's - undoubtedly on Voldemort's instructions - had told him he must find a way of keeping Sirius out of the way once you had seen the vision of Sirius being tortured. Then, if you decided to check whether Sirius was at home or not, Kreacher would be able to pretend he was not. Kreacher injured Buckbeak the Hippogriff yesterday, and, at the moment when you made your appearance in the fire, Sirius was upstairs tending to him.'**

"I have a Hippogriff?" Sirius said wide-eyed. Everyone chuckled but it was forced. This was another sad chapter. But at least it wasn't dangerous.

**There seemed to be very little air in Harry's lungs; his breathing was quick and shallow.**

**'And Kreacher told you all this . . . and laughed?' he croaked.**

**'He did not wish to tell me,' said Dumbledore. 'But I am a sufficiently accomplished Legilimens myself to know when I am being lied to and I - persuaded him - to tell me the full story, before I left for the Department of Mysteries.'**

**'And,' whispered Harry, his hands curled in cold fists on his knees, 'and Hermione kept telling us to be nice to him - '**

**'She was quite right, Harry,' said Dumbledore. 'I warned Sirius when we adopted twelve Grimmauld Place as our Headquarters that Kreacher must be treated with kindness and respect. I also told him that Kreacher could be dangerous to us. I do not think Sirius took me very seriously, or that he ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human's - '**

**'Don't you blame - don't you - talk - about Sirius like - ' Harry's breath was constricted, he could not get the words out properly; but the rage that had subsided briefly flared in him again: he would not let Dumbledore criticise Sirius. 'Kreacher's a lying - foul - he deserved - '**

"Exactly Harry," Sirius said with ease.

**'Kreacher is what he has been made by wizards, Harry,' said Dumbledore. 'Yes, he is to be pitied. His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby's. He was forced to do Sirius's bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him. And whatever Kreacher's faults, it must be admitted that Sirius did nothing to make Kreacher's lot easier - '**

**'DON'T TALK ABOUT SIRIUS LIKE THAT!' Harry yelled.**

** He was on his feet again, furious, ready to fly at Dumbledore, who had plainly not understood Sirius at all, how brave he was, how much he had suffered . . .**

James snorted, "are you sure, you're not Harry? It sounds like you when you're a bit full of yourself."

"And you aren't? How many times again was it _Evans?_" he turned to Lily to see her looking amused

"I lost count" she giggled and James just huffed and told them to bugger off.

**'What about Snape?' Harry spat. 'You're not talking about him, are you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual - '**

"I guess Snape doesn't like my son" Lily muttered darkly, _of course Severus would take everything out on Harry._

**'Harry you know Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge,' said Dumbledore steadily, 'but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the Forest. It was he, too, who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell her Sirius's whereabouts.'**

**Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.**

"Yeah, I feel like that too, Harry" Sirius and James groaned

**'Snape - Snape g - goaded Sirius about staying in the house - 'he made out Sirius was a coward - '**

**'Sirius was much too old and clever to have allowed such feeble taunts to hurt him,' said Dumbledore.**

"I'm not old!" Sirius protested, which made some people laugh.

** 'Snape stopped giving me Occlumency lessons!' Harry snarled. 'He threw me out of his office!'**

**'I am aware of it,' said Dumbledore heavily. 'I have already said that it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though I was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence - '**

**'Snape made it worse, my scar always hurt worse after lessons with him - ' Harry remembered Ron's thoughts on the subject and plunged on '- how do you know he wasn't trying to soften me up for Voldemort, make it easier for him to get inside my - '**

**'I trust Severus Snape,' said Dumbledore simply. 'But I forgot - another old man's mistake - that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father - I was wrong.'**

"You shouldn't trust him, don't you remember the last book? He's a death eater. Voldemort's right hand man, at that" Frank answered because Sirius or James could.

Albus just nodded and continued reading, he didn't know why he trusted Severus, he knew he was a death eater and he had no need to come in close contact with him.

**'But that's OK, is it?' yelled Harry, ignoring the scandalised faces and disapproving mutterings of the portraits on the walls. 'It's OK: for Snape to hate my dad, but it's not OK for Sirius to hate Kreacher?'**

"He has a point, you know" James muttered to himself but some people close to him heard but just ignored him.

**'Sirius did not hate Kreacher,' said Dumbledore. 'He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike . . . the fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward.'**

**'SO SIRIUS DESERVED WHAT HE GOT, DID HE?' Harry yelled.**

**'I did not say that, nor will you ever hear me say it,' Dumbledore: replied quietly. 'Sirius was not a cruel man, he was kind to house - 'elves in general. He had no love for Kreacher, because Kreacher was a living reminder of the home Sirius had hated.'**

"Damn right," Sirius said loudly, making some people jump. _Least you got that one right Dumbledore._

**'Yeah, he did hate it!' said Harry, his voice cracking, turning his back on Dumbledore and walking away. The sun was bright inside the room now and the eyes of all the portraits followed him as he walked, without realising what he was doing, without seeing the office at all. 'You made him stay shut up in that house and he hated it, that's why he wanted to get out last night - '**

**'I was trying to keep Sirius alive,' said Dumbledore quietly.**

**'People don't like being locked up!' Harry said furiously, rounding on him. 'You did it to me all last summer - '**

"Why would you do that?" some people asked curiously

** Dumbledore closed his eyes and buried his face in his long-fingered hands. Harry watched him, but this uncharacteristic sign of exhaustion, or sadness, or whatever it was from Dumbledore, did not soften him. On the contrary, he felt even angrier that Dumbledore was showing signs of weakness. He had no business being weak when Harry wanted to rage and storm at him.**

** Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses.**

**'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything. I ask only a little patience. You will have your chance to rage at me - to do whatever you like - when I have finished. I will not stop you.'**

"So this is it, this is what we have been waiting for."

**Harry glared at him for a moment, then flung himself back into the chair opposite Dumbledore and waited.**

** Dumbledore stared for a moment at the sunlit grounds outside the window, then looked back at Harry and said, 'Five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, Harry, safe and whole, as I had planned and intended. Well - not quite whole. You had suffered. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle's doorstep. I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years.'**

Everyone froze. "Ten years?" that would mean they would die this year. "We die soon then, Harry never knew us" Lily muttered though her tears. "Please just continue sir!"

** He paused. Harry said nothing.**

**'You might ask - and with good reason - why it had to be so. Why could some wizarding family not have taken you in? Many would have done so more than gladly, would have been honoured and delighted to raise you as a son.**

A few people moaned.

**'My answer is that my priority was to keep you alive. You were in more danger than perhaps anyone but I realised. Voldemort had been vanquished hours before, but his supporters - and many of them are almost as terrible as he - were still at large, angry, desperate and violent. And I had to make my decision, too, with regard to the years ahead. Did I believe that Voldemort was gone for ever? No. I knew not whether it would be ten, twenty or fifty years before he returned, but I was sure he would do so, and I was sure, too, knowing him as I have done, that he would not rest until he killed you.**

**'I knew that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is perhaps more extensive than any wizard alive. I knew that even my most complex and powerful protective spells and charms were unlikely to be invincible if he ever returned to full power.**

**'But I knew, too, where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated - to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative.'**

Everyone was nodding with this, they got it now, that's why he was at the horrible relatives. They understood now.

**'She doesn't love me,' said Harry at once. 'She doesn't give a damn - '**

**'But she took you,' Dumbledore cut across him. 'She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you, and in doing so, she sealed the charm I placed upon you. Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield I could give you.'**

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

**'I still don't - '**

**'While you can still call home the place where your mother's blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge. You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, whilst you are there he cannot hurt you. Your aunt knows this. I explained what I had done in the letter I left, with you, on her doorstep. She knows that allowing you houseroom may well have kept you alive for the past fifteen years.'**

"Well at least I can say thank you for that." Lily muttered darkly.

**'Wait,' said Harry. 'Wait a moment.'**

** He sat up straighter in his chair, staring at Dumbledore.**

** 'You sent that Howler. You told her to remember - it was your voice - '**

**'I thought,' said Dumbledore, inclining his head slightly, 'that she might need reminding of the pact she had sealed by taking you. I suspected the Dementor attack might have awoken her to the dangers of having you as a surrogate son.'**

"That must have been what Harry was talking about when he told them to ask their son about Dementors" Remus said though narrowed eyes, he was soaking in this information. A few people nodded.

**'It did,' said Harry quietly. 'Well - my uncle more than her. He wanted to chuck me out, but after the Howler came she - she said I had to stay.'**

**He stared at the floor for a moment, then said, 'But what's this got to do with - '**

**He could not say Sirius's name.**

**'Five years ago, then,' continued Dumbledore, as though he had not paused in his story, 'you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well-nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.**

"Plan?" Lily repeated

** 'And then . . . well, you will remember the events of your first year at Hogwarts quite as clearly as I do. You rose magnificently to the challenge that faced you and sooner - much sooner - than I had anticipated, you found yourself face to face with Voldemort. You survived again. You did more. You delayed his return to full power and strength. You fought a man's fight. I was . . . prouder of you than I can say.**

"He faced Voldemort when he was eleven." She muttered like she was going deaf. Everyone was wide-eyed. They couldn't believe that. No, that was too much.

**'Yet there was a flaw in this wonderful plan of mine,' said Dumbledore. 'An obvious flaw that I knew, even then, might be the undoing of it all. And yet, knowing how important it was that my plan should succeed, I told myself that I would not permit this flaw to ruin it. I alone could prevent this, so I alone must be strong. And here was my first test, as you lay in the hospital wing, weak from your struggle with Voldemort.'**

"I don't get it" nearly everyone muttered

**'I don't understand what you're saying,' said Harry.**

**'Don't you remember asking me, as you lay in the hospital wing, why Voldemort had tried to kill you when you were a baby?'**

** Harry nodded.**

**'Ought I to have told you then?'**

**Harry stared into the blue eyes and said nothing, but his heart was racing again.**

**'You do not see the flaw in the plan yet? No . . . perhaps not. Well, as you know, I decided not to answer you. Eleven, I told myself, was much too young to know. I had never intended to tell you when you were eleven. The knowledge would be too much at such a young age.**

"I'm not liking the sound of this" Molly mumbled to her husband and he nodded back.

**'I should have recognised the danger signs then. I should have asked myself why I did not feel more disturbed that you had already asked me the question to which I knew, one day, I must give a terrible answer. I should have recognised that I was too happy to think that I did not have to do it on that particular day . . . you were too young, much too young.**

"Yeah, we covered that" Sirius said impatiently

**'And so we entered your second year at Hogwarts. And once again you met challenges even grown wizards have never faced; once again you acquitted yourself beyond my wildest dreams. You did not ask me again, however, why Voldemort had left that mark on you. We discussed your scar, oh yes . . . we came very, very close to the subject. Why did I not tell you everything;**

"Second year as well, well this just gets better and better" Lily said, now becoming furious.

**'Well, it seemed to me that twelve was, after all, hardly better than eleven to receive such information. I allowed you to leave my presence, bloodstained, exhausted but exhilarated, and if I felt a twinge of unease that I ought, perhaps, to have told you then, it was swiftly silenced. You were still so young, you see, and I could not find it in myself to spoil that night of triumph . . .**

"Oh I see." Remus smiled sadly.

"What?" James turned on him "What is it?"

"Something nice, but it can also do damage" he sighed. No one knew what he was talking about apart from Dumbledore.

**'Do you see, Harry? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan now? I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid.'**

**'I don't - '**

**'I cared about you too much,' said Dumbledore simply. **

"That's the flaw?" Sirius said in disbelief as if he couldn't see what was wrong with it.

"Yes, Mr Black. In this case yes." He smiled faintly

"What do you mean?" he added suspiciously

"Padfoot, think about it, he cared to much, he didn't want to hurt even though Harry had to know. He didn't want to be the cause of his pain, but he was the only one who could tell him. He was holding it off. And that cause damage" Remus sighed and everyone started to understand. But what was it Harry had to know? What was the big thing?

**'I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act.**

"See?" He said gesturing to the book and everyone rolled there eyes.

** 'Is there a defence? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have - and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined - not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would have such a person on my hands.**

"It seems you think of him as highly, as he thinks of you."

** 'We entered your third year. I watched from afar as you struggled to repel Dementors, as you found Sirius, learned what he was and rescued him. Was I to tell you then, at the moment when you had triumphantly snatched your godfather from the jaws of the Ministry? But now, at the age of thirteen, my excuses were running out. Young you might be, but you had proved you were exceptional. My conscience was uneasy, Harry. I knew the time must come soon . . .**

"He learned how to fight dementors when he was thirteen, that's extremely impressive." Moody grunted.

"Yes, Yes it is." Albus smiled.

"What does it mean 'found Sirius, learned what he was and rescued him'. Or 'snatched your godfather from the jaws of the Ministry?'" Sirius asked uneasy.

"I don't know, mate" James said thumping him on the back. But he knew it wasn't good.

** 'But you came out of the maze last year, having watched Cedric Diggory die, having escaped death so narrowly yourself . . . and I did not tell you, though I knew, now Voldemort had returned, I must do it soon. And now, tonight, I know you have long been ready for the knowledge I have kept from you for so long, because you have proved that I should have placed the burden upon you before this. My only defence is this: I have watched you struggling under more burdens than any student who has ever passed through this school and I could not bring myself to add another - the greatest one of all.'**

Everyone looked down sadly, they didn't know what to expect. They didn't know what to say or do. And Harry struggling under more burdens than any other student to ever pass though the school wasn't helping matters.

**Harry waited, but Dumbledore did not speak.**

**'I still don't understand.'**

** 'Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew the prophecy had been made, though he did not know its full contents. He set out to kill you when you were still a baby, believing he was fulfilling the terms of the prophecy. He discovered, to his cost, that he was mistaken, when the curse intended to kill you backfired. And so, since his return to his body, and particularly since your extraordinary escape from him last year, he has been determined to hear that prophecy in its entirety. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you.'**

"Wait, back up… so there's a prophecy. And when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, it backfired and took him from his body? Wow… I guess that's why Harry's in the middle of all of this." James said sadly but in awe. Everyone couldn't help but agree.

** The sun had risen fully now: Dumbledore's office was bathed in it. The glass case in which the sword of Godric Gryffindor resided gleamed white and opaque, the fragments of the instruments Harry had thrown to the floor glistened like raindrops, and behind him, the baby Fawkes made soft chirruping noises in his nest of ashes.**

** The prophecy's smashed,' Harry said blankly. 'I was pulling Neville up those benches in the - the room where the archway was, and I ripped his robes and it fell . . .'**

"Neville? As in our son?" Alice and Frank asked.

Albus smiled, "Most likely." And they beamed. Maybe they would hear more of Neville.

**The thing that smashed was merely the record of the prophecy kept by the Department of Mysteries. But the prophecy was made to somebody, and that person has the means of recalling it perfectly.'**

**'Who heard it?' asked Harry, though he thought he knew the answer already.**

"You" the whole room said

**'I did,' said Dumbledore. 'On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog's Head inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher, though it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all. The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post. I turned to leave.'**

** Dumbledore got to his feet and walked past Harry to the black cabinet that stood beside Fawkes's perch. He bent down, slid back a catch and took from inside it the shallow stone basin, carved with runes around the edges, in which Harry had seen his father tormenting Snape.**

James looked saddened at the fact his son had seen this.

** Dumbledore walked back to the desk, placed the Pensieve upon it, and raised his wand to his own temple. From it, he withdrew silvery, gossamer-fine strands of thought clinging to the wand and deposited them into the basin. He sat back down behind his desk and watched his thoughts swirl and drift inside the Pensieve for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he raised his wand and prodded the silvery substance with its tip.**

** A figure rose out of it, draped in shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size behind her glasses, and she revolved slowly, her feet in the basin. But when Sybill Trelawney spoke, it was not in her usual ethereal, mystic voice, but in the harsh, hoarse tones Harry had heard her use once before:**

** 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . .'**

No one spoke. No one knew how to. They understood now, what this was all about. But they didn't know how to feel about it. They were awed but what if he died in the process. They were terrified. It was around ten minutes before James asked Dumbledore to continue.

** The slowly revolving Professor Trelawney sank back into the silver mass below and vanished.**

** The silence within the office was absolute. Neither Dumbledore nor Harry nor any of the portraits made a sound. Even Fawkes had fallen silent.**

"No wonder"

**'Professor Dumbledore?' Harry said very quietly, for Dumbledore, still staring at the Pensieve, seemed completely lost in thought. 'It . . . did that mean . . . what did that mean?'**

**'It meant,' said Dumbledore, 'that the person who has the only chance of conquering Lord Voldemort for good was born at the end of July, nearly sixteen years ago. This boy would be born to parents who had already defied Voldemort three times.'**

"Wait, a minute" Frank said, That description described Neville too. He looked at Alice and knew she felt the same.

** Harry felt as though something was closing in on him. His breathing seemed difficult again.**

** 'It means - me?'**

** Dumbledore surveyed him for a moment through his glasses.**

**The odd thing, Harry,' he said softly, 'is that it may not have meant you at all. Sybill's prophecy could have applied to two wizard boys, both born at the end of July that year, both of whom had parents in the Order of the Phoenix, both sets of parents having narrowly escaped Voldemort three times. One, of course, was you. The other was Neville Longbottom.'**

Everyone was silent again. What would happen if it was the other way about. Would Neville be as brave as Harry. Would Alice put her life in front of his. Of course she would. But it would most likely, be different. They didn't know what would happen. 'the poor boys' were destined for a terrible fate.

** 'But then . . . but then, why was it my name on the prophecy and not Neville's?'**

**The official record was re-labelled after Voldemort's attack on you as a child,' said Dumbledore. 'It seemed plain to the keeper of the Hall of Prophecy that Voldemort could only have tried to kill you because he knew you to be the one to whom Sybill was referring.'**

**'Then - it might not be me?' said Harry.**

"Sorry son, but there's no doubt it's you." James sighed heavily. No there wasn't a doubt it was Harry.

** 'I am afraid,' said Dumbledore slowly, looking as though every word cost him a great effort, 'that there is no doubt that it is you.'**

** 'But you said - Neville was born at the end of July, too - and his mum and dad - '**

**'You are forgetting the next part of the prophecy, the final identifying feature of the boy who could vanquish Voldemort . . . Voldemort himself would mark him as his equal. And so he did, Harry. He chose you, not Neville. He gave you the scar that has proved both blessing and curse.'**

"Bloody idiot. He ruined so many lifes" Moody muttered under his breath.

** 'But he might have chosen wrong!' said Harry. 'He might have marked the wrong person!'**

**'He chose the boy he thought most likely to be a danger to him,' said Dumbledore. 'And notice this, Harry: he chose, not the pure-blood (which, according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing) but the half-blood, like himself.**

"Voldemort's a half-blood…" James whispered to himself but was heard by everyone. Everyone started to laugh. That was just so ironic.

** He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you, and in marking you with that scar, he did not kill you, as he intended, but gave you powers, and a future, which have fitted you to escape him not once, but four times so far - something that neither your parents, nor Neville's parents, ever achieved.'**

"We're dead too." Alice and Frank said softly. Everyone looked at them sympathetically. But they didn't notice.

**'Why did he do it, then?' said Harry, who felt numb and cold. 'Why did he try and kill me as a baby? He should have waited to see whether Neville or I looked more dangerous when we were older and tried to kill whoever it was then - '**

** That might, indeed, have been the more practical course,' said Dumbledore, 'except that Voldemort's information about the prophecy was incomplete. The Hog's Head inn, which Sybill chose for its cheapness, has long attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks. As you and your friends found out to your cost, and I to mine that night, it is a place where it is never safe to assume you are not being overheard. Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sybill Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing. My - our - one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building.'**

**'So he only heard - ?'**

**'He heard only the beginning, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you, and marking you as his equal. So Voldemort never knew that there might be danger in attacking you, that it might be wise to wait, to learn more. He did not know that you would have power the Dark Lord knows not - '**

**'But I don't!' said Harry, in a strangled voice. 'I haven't any powers he hasn't got, I couldn't fight the way he did tonight, I can't possess people or - or kill them - '**

"That's a good thing Harry." Lily cooed.

** There is a room in the Department of Mysteries,' interrupted Dumbledore, 'that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.'**

**Harry closed his eyes. If he had not gone to save Sirius, Sirius would not have died . . . More to stave off the moment when he would have to think of Sirius again, Harry asked, without caring much about the answer, The end of the prophecy . . . it was something about . . . neither can live . . .'**

**'. . . while the other survives,' said Dumbledore.**

"My poor, poor baby boy" Lily said anxiously.

**'So,' said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, 'so does that mean that . . . that one of us has got to kill the other one . . . in the end?'**

**'Yes,' said Dumbledore.**

"It's a kill or be killed situation. That's just the way it's going to be for him."

** For a long time, neither of them spoke. Somewhere far beyond the office walls, Harry could hear the sound of voices, students heading down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast, perhaps. It seemed impossible that there could be people in the world who still desired food, who laughed, who neither knew nor cared that Sirius Black was gone for ever. Sirius seemed a million miles away already; even now a part of Harry still believed that if he had only pulled back that veil, he would have found Sirius looking back at him, greeting him, perhaps, with his laugh like a bark . . .**

Sirius laughed at that. He couldn't help it. It was just the way Harry knew him. Everyone smiled.

**'I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry,' said Dumbledore hesitantly. 'You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess . . . that I rather thought . . . you had enough responsibility to be going on with.'**

Lily burst in to tears, and mumbled to James "my boy was going to be a prefect" which made James, Remus and Sirius to laugh but made everyone else look confused.

** Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down** **Dumbledore's face into his long silver beard.**

"Well that was … intresting … would you like me to continue where I left off?" Everyone said yes. So he cleared his throat. And began "Chapter 6"


	9. The Ghoul in Pyjamas

**The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; **

Everyone looked down, they had forgot Mad-eye had died.

**Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Harry felt that nothing but action would assuage his feelings of guilt and grief and that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.**

Dumbledore, and McGonagall stiffened. Everyone noticed.

"Sir, what are Horcruxes?" Lily asked curiously

"Something, so evil, you shouldn't know, but I guess if you don't know by the end of this chapter, I shall tell you." And she nodded.

**"Well, you can't do anything about the"- Ron mouthed the word Horcruxes -"till you're seventeen. You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"**

**"No," Harry admitted.**

**"I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. "She said she was saving it for when you got here."**

**They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath.**

**"The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can -"**

**"Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."**

**Harry understood "they" to mean Fleur and Mrs. Weasley.**

"I get to hear about my little boys wedding. He's not even at school yet," she laughed and everyone else smiled at that.

**"It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous.**

**"Don't they realize how important -?"**

"They would tell us, wouldn't they?" Arther asked everyone but they never said anything.

**"'Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."**

**Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry.**

**"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined."**

"If I told them that, I bet it's important." He smiled apologetic at her, he had a feeling what this was about and really really hoped he was wrong.

**Ron's prediction came true within hours. Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack. Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.**

**"Ron and Hermione seem to think that the three of you are dropping out of Hogwarts," she began in a light, casual tone.**

Molly and Lily were shaking here heads, they needed their education.

**"Oh," said Harry. "Well, yeah. We are."**

Sirus and James laughed.

**The mangle turned of its own accord in a corner, wringing out what looked like one of Mr. Weasley's vests.**

**"May I ask why you are abandoning your education?" said Mrs. Weasley.**

"He's not going to say" Molly said to her future self.

**"Well, Dumbledore left me... stuff to do," mumbled Harry. "Ron and Hermione know about it, and they want to come too."**

**"What sort of 'stuff'?"**

"Sadly, you don't want to know, if I'm correct in thinking. It's terrible." McGonagall sniffed. The thought that he made more than one was terrible.

**"I'm sorry, I can't -"**

**"Well, frankly, I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I'm sure Mr. And Mrs. Granger would agree!" said Mrs. Weasley. Harry had been afraid of the "concerned parent" attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did so that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny's. This did not help.**

Molly looked quite proud of herself.

**"Dumbledore didn't want anyone else to know, Mrs. Weasley. I'm sorry. Ron and Hermione don't have to come, it's their choice -"**

James smiled and said "If they're your best friends, they of course they would come, no matter how bad"

**"I don't see that you have to go either!" she snapped, dropping all pretense now. "You're barely of age, any of you! It's utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you -"**

"Sadly, Molly. It must be Harry." Albus sighed and they all looked at him curiously.

**"I didn't misunderstand," said Harry flatly. "It's got to be me."**

Dumbledore smiled

**He handed her back the single sock he was supposed to be identifying, which was patterned with golden bulrushes.**

**"And that's not mine. I don't support Puddlemere United."**

Mostly everyone laughed, such a different subject.

**"Oh, of course not," said Mrs. Weasley with a sudden and rather unnerving return to her casual tone. "I should have realized. Well, Harry, while we've still got you here, you won't mind helping with the preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding, will you? There's still so much to do."**

**"No - I - of course not," said Harry, disconcerted by this sudden change of subject.**

**"Sweet of you," she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.**

Molly laughed at herself. She just knew how to do it didn't she

**From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept Harry, Ron and Hermione so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behavior would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of color-matching favors, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canap-s however, Harry started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seemed to keep him, Ron, and Hermione away from one another; he had not had a chance to speak to the two of them alone since the first night, when he had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivander.**

Sirius chuckled, "Yes, I see what you're doing, but somehow I don't think it'll work."

She sighed "It's be worth a shot"

**"I think Mum thinks that if she can stop the three of you getting together and planning, she'll be able to delay you leaving," Ginny told Harry in an undertone, as they laid the table for dinner on the third night of his stay.**

**"And then what does she think's going to happen?" Harry muttered. "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she's holding us here making vol-au-vents?"**

**He had spoken without thinking, and saw Ginny's face whiten.**

**"So it's true?" she said. "That's what you're trying to do?"**

"Uh-oh" Sirius said dramatically.

**"I - not - I was joking," said Harry evasively.**

Remus, Sirius and James exchanged looks. "Yeah, so believable."

**They stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in Ginny's expression. Suddenly Harry became aware that this was the first time that he had been alone with her since those stolen hours in secluded corners of the Hogwarts grounds. He was sure she was remembering them too. Both of them jumped as the door opened, and Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, and Bill walked in.**

**They were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow had replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters.**

Sirius burst out laughing, "So that's why, my mother must be so happy, wherever she is."

** Mr. Weasley had explained that after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place's location had become a Secret-Keeper in turn.**

**"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."**

**"But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?" asked Harry.**

"He was in the order … I can't believe it." Remus muttered but he could believe it.

Moody went on about how it's Dumbledore trusting people again.

**"Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they'll be strong enough both to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can't be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as headquarters now that its protection has become so shaky."**

**The kitchen was so crowded that evening it was difficult to maneuver knives and forks. Harry found himself crammed beside Ginny; the unsaid things that had just passed between them made him wish they had been separated by a few more people. He was trying so hard to avoid brushing her arm he could barely cut his chicken.**

Some people looked amused.

**"No news about Mad-Eye?" Harry asked Bill.**

"Didn't find my body then."

**"Nothing," replied Bill.**

**They had not been able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.**

**"The Daily Prophet hasn't said a word about him dying or about finding the body," Bill went on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."**

**"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?" Harry called across the table to Mr. Weasley, who shook his head.**

"Don't tell me they are that bad in their time that they actually expected them to call one" everyone shook their heads in disbelief

**"Because they know I had no choice or because they don't want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?"**

**"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."**

"I can't believe it. Really?" Lily said frustrated.

**"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: I must not tell lies.**

"What is that?" Lily asked sharply.

Her and Remus shared a dark look, and a few people who didn't know what did that looked confused at them, Remus cleared his throat "That's a blood quill." But didn't say anything else. When people continued to look at him, Lily decided to continue.

"It's when someone writes in their own blood, and it will make marks on their hand, but it should go away in about an hour, but it seem like Harry must have had this for about a year, which means he's had if used on him over about a million times, the scars will never fade. It is also illegal." She huffed. Everyone looked at her mortified.

**"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asked Ron angrily.**

**"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mr. Weasley replied, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumors going around; I for one don't believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day; I just hope he's working on a plan."**

**There was a pause in which Mrs. Weasley magicked the empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.**

**"We must decide 'ow you will be disguised, 'Arry," said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. "For ze wedding," she added, when he looked confused. "Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey 'ave 'ad champagne."**

"Good idea." Molly and Lily said in approval.

**From this, Harry gathered that she still suspected Hagrid.**

Some shook their heads, it wasn't Hagrid.

**"Yes, good point," said Mrs. Weasley from the top of the table where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment. "Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?"**

**"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!"**

"I'm sure you are, but that's not the point, Ronald." Molly scolded.

**"We are holding your brother's wedding here in a few days' time, young man -"**

**"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left -"**

Sirius laughed at that and gasped something like "Brave man"

**"Don't talk to your mother like that," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "And do as you're told."**

**Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart.**

**"I can help, some of it's my mess." Harry told Ron, but Mrs. Weasley cut across him.**

"Of course, she did" Arther chuckled.

**"No, Harry, dear, I'd much rather you helped Arthur much out the chickens, and Hermione, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour; you know they're arriving at eleven tomorrow morning."**

**But as it turned out, there was very little to do for the chickens. "There's no need to, er, mention it to Molly," Mr. Weasley told Harry, blocking his access to the coop, "but, er, Ted Tonks sent me most of what was left of Sirius's bike and, er, I'm hiding - that's to say, keeping - it in here. Fantastic stuff: There's an exhaust gaskin, as I believe it's called, the most magnificent battery, and it'll be a great opportunity to find out how brakes work. I'm going to try and put it all back together again when Molly's not - I mean, when I've got time."**

"What was that Arther?" She told at him sternly

"I have no idea, Molly. No idea at all." But he looked rather excited about the bike.

**When they returned to the house, Mrs. Weasley was nowhere to be seen, so Harry slipped upstairs to Ron's attic bedroom.**

"Sneaky, sneaky" James chuckled at his son.

**"I'm doing it, I'm doing -! Oh, it's you," said Ron in relief, as Harry entered the room. Ron lay back down on the bed, which he had evidently just vacated. **

Everyone laughed at Ron's antics.

**The room was just as messy as it had been all week; the only chance was that Hermione was now sitting in the far corner, her fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet, sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.**

A few people chuckled "So she's the book worm of the group."

**"Hi, Harry," she said, as he sat down on his camp bed.**

**"And how did you manage to get away?"**

**"Oh, Ron's mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday," said Hermione. She threw Numerology and Grammatica onto one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts onto the other.**

**"We were just talking about Mad-Eye," Ron told Harry. "I reckon he might have survived."**

"No, he couldn't" some sighed

**"But Bill saw him hit by the Killing Curse," said Harry.**

**"Yeah, but Bill was under attack too," said Ron. "How can he be sure what he saw?"**

**"Even if the Killing Curse missed, Mad-Eye still fell about a thousand feet," said Hermione, now weight Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland in her hand.**

"Why would she even need that?" Remus asked comfused.

**"He could have used a Shield Charm -"**

"I'd still be dead" he grunted

**"Fleur said his wand was blasted out of his hand," said Harry.**

**"Well, all right, if you want him to be dead," said Ron grumpily, punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape.**

"Ron, they didn't say that." Arther shook his head sadly

**"Of course we don't want him to be dead!" said Hermione, looking shocked. "It's dreadful that he's dead! But we're being realistic!"**

"Exactly."

**For the first time, Harry imagined Mad-Eye's body, broken as Dumbledore's had been, yet with that one eye still whizzing in its socket. He felt a stab of revulsion mixed with a bizarre desire to laugh.**

No one laughed, they just look revolted

**"The Death Eaters probably tidied up after themselves, that's why no one's found him," said Ron wisely.**

**"Yeah," said Harry. "Like Barty Crouch, turned into a bone and buried in Hagrid's front garden. They probably transfigured Moody and stuffed him -"**

"So that's what happened to him" everyone again looked revolted.

"I don't care what happened to me, but I sure hope it wasn't that." Moody muttered to himself

**"Don't!" squealed Hermione. Startled, Harry looked over just in time to see her burst into tears over her copy of Spellman's Syllabary.**

**"Oh no," said Harry, struggling to get up from the old camp bed. "Hermione, I wasn't trying to upset - "**

**But with a great creaking of rusty bedsprings, Ron bounded off the bed and got there first. One arm around Hermione, he fished in his jeans pocket and withdrew a revolting-looking handkerchief that he had used to clean out the oven earlier. Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, "Tergeo."**

**The wand siphoned off most of the grease. Looking rather pleased with himself, Ron handed the slightly smoking handkerchief to Hermione.**

A few woman giggled at Ron's actions.

**"Oh... thanks, Ron... I'm sorry..." She blew her nose and hiccupped. "It's just so awf-ful, isn't it? R-right after Dumbledore... I j-just n-never imagined Mad-Eye dying, somehow, he seemed so tough!"**

**"Yeah, I know," said Ron, giving her a squeeze. "But you know what he'd say to us if he was here?"**

**"'C-constant vigilance,'" said Hermione, mopping her eyes.**

Everyone laughed outright at this, Moody said that, even now. Moody was looking rather pleased with the kids, for saying that.

**"That's right," said Ron, nodding. "He'd tell us to learn from what happened to him. And what I've learned is not to trust that cowardly little squit, Mundungus."**

Again everyone laughed, this seemed to be a better chapter than the rest.

**Hermione gave a shaky laugh and leaned forward to pick up two more books. A second later, Ron had snatched his arm back from around her shoulders; she had dropped The Monster of Monsters on his foot. The book had broken free from its restraining belt and snapped viciously at Ron's ankle.**

**"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as Harry wrenched the book from Ron's leg and retied it shit.**

**"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked, limping back to his bed.**

**"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione, "When we're looking for the Horcruxes."**

"Again, what are Horcruxes?" Remus asked wanting to know this badly. He'd never read about it before.

**"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library."**

Some laughed, they really like this Ron person, and Arther thought his son was funny. Molly tried to look disapproving but it didn't quite work.

**"Ha ha," said Hermione, looking down at Spellman's Syllabary. "I wonder... will we need to translate runes? It's possible... I think we'd better take it, to be safe."**

"Good, take as much as you can" McGonagall said.

**She dropped the syllabary onto the larger of the two piles and picked up Hogwarts, A History.**

**"Listen," said Harry.**

**He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance.**

Everyone one smiled "looks like they know what he's about to say"

**"I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.**

"I get it," Lily sighed "He's trying to talk them out of coming with him"

**"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.**

The room erupted with laughter, _yeah apparently this is a usual speech_

**"As we knew he would," he sighed, turning back to the books. "You know, I think I will take Hogwarts, A History. Even if we're not going back there, I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't have it with -"**

_Nice_ most thought

**"Listen!" said Harry again.**

**"No, Harry, you listen," said Hermione. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago - years, really."**

Arther smiled "they must have been together for a while then"

**"But -"**

**"Shut up," Ron advised him.**

Most of the room. Arther laughed at his son "good advice son" he chuckled.

**"- are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.**

**"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming Travels with Trolls onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose."**

Some nodded, that was quite good.

**"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me - or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you."**

**"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't - well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."**

Everyone was silent, they felt for the girl. Having to do that to her parents. The silence was broke a few times with some sobs.

**Hermione's eyes were swimming with tears again. Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around her once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact. Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.**

A few people chuckled, _yeah that seems about right._

**"I - Hermione, I'm sorry - I didn't -"**

**"Didn't realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do. Ron, show Harry what you've done."**

**"Nah, he's just eaten," said Ron.**

Molly looked cautious and asked "Do I want to know?"

**"Go on, he needs to know!"**

**"Oh, all right. Harry, come here."**

**For the second time Ron withdrew his arm from around Hermione and stumped over to the door.**

**"C'mon."**

**"Why?" Harry asked, following Ron out of the room onto the tiny landing.**

**"Descendo," muttered Ron, pointing his wand at the low ceiling. A hatch opened right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet. A horrible, half-sucking, half-moaning sound came out of the square hole, along with an unpleasant smell like open drains.**

**"That's your ghoul, isn't it?" asked Harry, who had never actually met the creature that sometimes disrupted the nightly silence.**

"You have a ghoul?" Remus asked curious

Arther laughed, he rather liked the ghoul

"Yeah and it's annoying" Molly huffed

**"Yeah, it is," said Ron, climbing the ladder. "Come and have a look at him."**

**Harry followed Ron up the few short steps into the tiny attic space. His head and shoulders were in the room before he caught sight of the creature curled up a few feet from him, fast asleep in the gloom with its large mouth wide open.**

**"But it... it looks... do ghouls normally wear pajamas?"**

Some people looked at each other. "No"

**"No," said Ron. "Nor have they usually got red hair or that number of pustules."**

**Harry contemplated the thing, slightly revolted. It was human in shape and size, and was wearing what, now that Harry's eyes became used to the darkness, was clearly an old pair of Ron's pajamas. He was also sure that ghouls were generally rather slimy and bald, rather than distinctly hairy and covered in angry purple blisters.**

**"He's me, see?" said Ron.**

**"No," said Harry. "I don't."**

**"I'll explain it back in my room, the smell's getting to me," said Ron. They climbed back down the ladder, which Ron returned to the ceiling, and rejoined Hermione, who was still sorting books.**

**"Once we've left, the ghoul's going to come and live down here in my room," said Ron. "I think he's really looking forward to it - well, it's hard to tell, because all he can do is moan and drool - but he nods a lot when you mention it. Anyway, he's going to be me with spattergroit. Good, eh?"**

"That's actually pretty good."

**Harry merely looked his confusion.**

**"It is!" said Ron, clearly frustrated that Harry had not grasped the brilliance of the plan. "Look, when we three don't turn up at Hogwarts again, everyone's going to think Hermione and I must be with you, right? Which means the Death Eaters will go straight for our families to see if they've got information on where you are."**

"Everyone must know they're close"

**"But hopefully it'll look like I've gone away with Mum and Dad; a lot of Muggle-borns are talking about going into hiding at the moment," said Hermione.**

**"We can't hide my whole family, it'll look too fishy and they can't all leave their jobs," said Ron. "So we're going to put out the story that I'm seriously ill with spattergroit, which is why I can't go back to school. If anyone comes calling to investigate, Mum or Dad can show them the ghoul in my bed, covered in pustules. Spattergroit's really contagious, so they're not going to want to go near him. It won't matter that he can't say anything, either, because apparently you can't once the fungus has spread to your uvula."**

Molly sighed _Yes, that is a very good plan_

**"And your mum and dad are in on this plan?" asked Harry.**

**"Dad is. He helped Fred and George transform the ghoul. Mum... well, you've seen what she's like. She won't accept we're going till we're gone."**

"Yeah, I bet that's true" she admitted

**There was silence in the room, broken only by gentle thuds as Hermione continued to throw books onto one pile or the other. Ron sat watching her, and Harry looked from one to the other, unable to say anything. The measure they had taken to protect their families made him realize, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.**

Everyone smiled. _They'll understand._

**Through the silence came the muffled sounds of Mrs. Weasley shouting from four floors below.**

**"Ginny's probably left a speck of dust on a poxy napkin ring," said Ron. "I dunno why the Delacours have got to come two days before the wedding."**

**"Fleur's sister's a bridesmaid, she needs to be here for the rehearsal, and she's too young to come on her own," said Hermione, as she pored indecisively over Break with a Banshee.**

**"Well, guests aren't going to help Mum's stress levels," said Ron.**

Everyone looked at Molly and laughed, they could just imagine her.

**"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, tossing Defensive Magical Theory into the bin without a second glance and picking up An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Harry, and I understand why, but... well... shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"**

"Why would he want to go to Godric's Hollow?" James asked, that's where they lived, but he didn't see why Harry wanted to go there.

"I don't know, maybe to visit you're graves?" Sirius added sadly.

James had forgot about that. "Oh … yeah … forgot that"

**"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," said Harry, who did not believe that Hermione really understood his desire to return to Godric's Hollow. His parents' graves were only part of the attraction: **

"See" Sirius repeated but not in a told-you-so way like usual

**He had a strong, though inexplicable, feeling that the place held answers for him. **

Everyone looked at each other curious

**Perhaps it was simply because it was there that he had survived Voldemort's Killing Curse; **

Everyone gaped at the book "He survived the Killing curse…" everyone mimed silently. That explained a lot of things.

**now that he was facing the challenge of repeating the feat, Harry was drawn to the place where it had happened, wanting to understand.**

**"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow?" Hermione asked. "He might expect you to go back and visit your parents' graves once you're free to go wherever you like?"**

**This had not occurred to Harry. While he struggled to find a counterargument, Ron spoke up, evidently following his own train of thought.**

**"This R.A.B. person," he said. "You know, the one who stole the real locket?"**

Lily looked very confused, "Who's R.A.B? and what locket?"

"I know someone with those initials but I don't know why he would be in this book, at all?" Siruis said, this couldn't be his brother, could it?

"Who?" James sounded confused, he knew everyone Sirius knew.

"You don't want to know, but anyway it's unlikely."

**Hermione nodded**

**"He said in his note he was going to destroy it, didn't he?"**

"Destory what? The locket? But why would he want to do that?" Lily asked her old Professors who sadly shook their heads

**Harry dragged his rucksack toward him and pulled out the fake Horcrux in which R.A.B.'s note was still folded.**

Albus sighed. He understood now "The locket is a fake Horcrux, and the R.A.B person, wrote a note that's inside it." Everyone looked a little thoughtful at that. _What was a Horcrux?_

**"'I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.'" Harry read out.**

**"Well, what if he did finish it off?" said Ron.**

**"Or she." Interposed Hermione.**

A few people chuckled at this.

**"Whichever," said Ron. "it'd be one less for us to do!"**

McGonagall paled. "Less" she mumbled. "Albus, do you know what this means?" she asked faintly to everyone's confusing. He sighed and nodded. He really didn't like this.

**"Yes, but we're still going to have to try and trace the real locket, aren't we?" said Hermione, "to find out whether or not it's destroyed."**

Albus nodded "Very good" he smiled

**"And once we get hold of it, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" asked Ron.**

**"Well," said Hermione, "I've been researching that."**

**"How?" asked Harry. "I didn't think there were any books on Horcruxes in the library?"**

"That will be why me and Lily don't know" Remus told everyone

**"There weren't," said Hermione, who had turned pink. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he - he didn't destroy them."**

"Where's this going" Sirius said slowly with a grin, everyone looked at the book, knowing were exactly this was going.

**Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.**

**"How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"**

"Yes, how?" McGonagall asked the book in Albus's hand

**"It - it wasn't stealing!" said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron with a kind of desperation. "They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves. Anyway, if he really didn't want anyone to get at them, I'm sure he would have made it much harder to -"**

James, and Sirius started laughing, Harry's friend stole from Dumbledore, Dumbledore chuckled at this.

**"Get to the point!" said Ron.**

**"Well... it was easy," said Hermione in a small voice. "I just did a Summoning Charm. You know - Accio. And - they zoomed out of Dumbledore's study window right into the girls' dormitory."**

Minerva looked very disapproving. "Why didn't you make it harder?" she asked in shock, how could he be so naïve.

"I think, I wanted them to find them Minerva" he said sadly. She just shook her head. Really.

**"But when did you do this?" Harry asked, regarding Hermione with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.**

**"Just after his - Dumbledore's - funeral," said Hermione in an even smaller voice. "Right after we agreed we'd leave school and go and look for the Horcruxes. When I went back upstairs to get my things it - it just occurred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be... and I was alone in there... so I tried... and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I - I packed them."**

Everyone sat and laughed, this girl stole from Dumbledore, even though he was dead.

**She swallowed and then said imploringly, "I can't believe Dumbledore would have been angry, it's not as though we're going to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?"**

"Yes, well, I'm not angry then. I'm rather amused she thought of that," and a few people smiled at him uncertain.

**"Can you hear us complaining?" said Ron. "Where are these books anyway?"**

**Hermione rummaged for a moment and then extracted from the pile a large volume, bound in faded black leather. She looked a little nauseated and held it as gingerly as if it were something recently dead.**

"Yes, it is rather disgusting stuff, in those books" He told everyone at the table. They looked curious but also cautions.

**"This is the one that gives explicit instructions on how to make a Horcrux. Secrets of the Darkest Art - it's a horrible book, really awful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library... if he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here."**

"Sir, what's Horcrux's and why would Voldemort make some?"

"You don't want to know Mr Lupin, but you will. I know you'll not be overly happy though." He smiled sadly. Then thought of something. He turned to the back page and these it was. When Harry found out about Horcrux's "I have the chapter when Harry finds out. But I'll read it after this chapter." He smiled at them and they all smile back."

**"Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if he'd already read that?" asked Ron.**

"Slughorn? Why would Horace be involved Albus?" Minerva asked concerned. He didn't know though.

**"He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven," said Harry.**

"SEVEN!" Minerva yelled. "he made seven" everyone didn't know, if they wanted to know now.

** "Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Horcrux by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think you're right, Hermione, that could easily have been where he got the information."**

Dumbledore smiled when Harry said 'Riddle' "excuse me sir? Who's Riddle?"

"Voldemort, Mr Lupin." But didn't continue while made some to look at him surprised and some confused.

**"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that's just by making one Horcrux!"**

"What is she talking about? Ripping a soul? How is that even possible?" Lily looked horrified.

"That's Horcrux, Mrs Potter." He sighed

She looked at Remus then back "But why would he do that?"

"It makes you immortal." He said sighing again and shaking his head. _What have you become Tom, you're not even human._

Everyone looked rather green. "Oh my Merlin" most muttered under their breathes.

**Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."**

**"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.**

**"Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."**

**"Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.**

**"Remorse," said Hermione. **

Some people looked sad. No, their was no way Voldemort would be putting his soul back together anytime soon.

**"You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"**

"No" the whole room echoed

**"No," said Ron, before Harry could answer. "So does it say how to destroy Horcruxes in that book?"**

**"Yes," said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, "because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that I've read, what Harry did to Riddle's diary was one of the few really foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux."**

"What diary?" Alice asked curiously. There was a lot of questions in this book

**"What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?" asked Harry.**

"How did he have a basilisk fang?" Sirius muttered. Really, why was this boy so strange.

**"Oh well, lucky we've got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then," said Ron. "I was wondering what we were going to do with them."**

A few chuckled at Ron's humor.

**"It doesn't have to be a basilisk fang," said Hermione patiently. "It has to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and it's incredibly rare -"**

**"- phoenix tears," said Harry, nodding.**

"Why does it sound like he knows from experience?" Lily asked not really wanting an answer.

**"Exactly," said Hermione. "Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."**

**"But even if we wreck the thing it lives in," said Ron, "why can't the bit of soul in it just go and live in something else?"**

"Exactly?" Frank asked everyone but no one paid any attention to him. Too focused on the book

**"Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being."**

**Seeing that Harry and Ron looked thoroughly confused, Hermione hurried on. "Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldn't damage your soul at all."**

**"Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," said Ron. Harry laughed.**

Everyone else laughed too

**"It should be, actually! But my point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched," said Hermione. "But it's the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can't exist without it."**

**"That diary sort of died when I stabbed it," said Harry, remembering ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the screams of the piece of Voldemort's soul as it vanished.**

"So he's already destroyed one?" Alice questioned

"Yes it would seem so Mrs Longbottom." Minerva answered

**"And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul trapped in it could no longer exist. Ginny tried to get rid of the diary before you did, flushing it away, but obviously it came back good as new."**

**"Hang on," said Ron, frowning. "The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasn't it? How does that work, then?"**

"My baby girl" Molly frowned deeply. What had happened with her baby girl.

**"While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don't mean holding it for too long, it's nothing to do with touching it," she added before Ron could speak. "I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You're in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux."**

**"I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?" said Harry. "Why didn't I ask him? I never really..."**

"So, there's another Horcrux down." Some muttered to themselves.

**His voice trailed away: He was thinking of all the things he should have asked Dumbledore, and of how, since the headmaster had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities when Dumbledore had been alive, to find out more... to find out everything...**

**The silence was shattered as the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Hermione shrieked and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art; Crookshanks streaked under the bed, hissing indignantly; Ron jumped off the bed, skidded on a discarded Chocolate Frog wrapper, and smacked his head on the opposite wall; and Harry instinctively dived for his wand before realizing that he was looking up at Mrs. Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.**

"Oh no…" Molly told the rest of the group amused, who just smiled at her.

**"I'm so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm sure you all need your rest... but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help."**

**"Oh yes," said Hermione, looking terrified as she leapt to her feet, sending books flying in every direction. "we will... we're sorry..."**

Sirius laughed "You much be frightening Molly." He added

**With an anguished look at Harry and Ron, Hermione hurried out of the room after Mrs. Weasley.**

**"it's like being a house-elf," complained Ron in an undertone, still massaging his head as he and Harry followed. "Except without the job satisfaction. The sooner this wedding's over, the happier, I'll be."**

**"Yeah," said Harry, "then we'll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes... It'll be like a holiday, won't it?"**

A couple of people chuckled at Harry's sense of humor too.

**Ron started to laugh, but at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs. Weasley's room, stopped quite abruptly.**

Sirius tried not to say anything but couldn't help it "Yeah, that would stop me too"

**The Delacours arrived the following morning at eleven o' clock. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were feeling quite resentful toward Fleur's family by this time; and it was with ill grace that Ron stumped back upstairs to put on matching socks, and Harry attempted to flatten his hair. Once they had all been deemed smart enough, they trooped out into the sunny backyard to await the visitors.**

**Harry had never seen the place looking so tidy. The rusty cauldrons and old Wellington boots that usually littered the steps by the back door were gone, replaced by two new Flutterby bushes standing either side of the door in large pots; though there was no breeze, the leaves waved lazily, giving an attractive rippling effect. The chickens had been shut away, the yard had been swept, and the nearby garden had been pruned, plucked, and generally spruced up, although Harry, who liked it in its overgrown state, thought that it looked rather forlorn without its usual contingent of capering gnomes.**

**He had lost track of how many security enchantments had been placed upon the Burrow by both the Order and the Ministry; all he knew was that it was no longer possible for anybody to travel by magic directly into the place. Mr. Weasley had therefore gone to meet the Delacours on top of a nearby hill, where they were to arrive by Portkey. The first sound of their approach was an unusually high-pitched laugh, which turned out to be coming from Mr. Weasley, who appeared at the gate moments later, laden with luggage and leading a beautiful blonde woman in long, leaf green robes, who could be Fleur's mother.**

**"Maman!" cried Fleur, rushing forward to embrace her. "Papa!"**

"It's nice to hear about his, don't you think Arther? Nice to hear about Bill's wedding." She told him.

"Yes, Molly dear it is." He smiled at her, stroking her hair

**Monsieur Delacour was nowhere near as attractive as his wife; he was a head shorter and extremely plumb, with a little, pointed black beard. However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing towards Mrs. Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.**

Some people laughed till Molly death glared at them

**"You 'ave been so much trouble," he said in a deep voice. "Fleur tells us you 'ave been working very 'ard."**

**"Oh, it's been nothing, nothing!" trilled Mrs. Weasley. "No trouble at all!"**

"Yeah, I realized that earlier" James told her sarcastically but she only smiled at him

**Ron relieved his feelings by aiming a kick at a gnome who was peering out from behind one of the new Flutterby bushes.**

**"Dear lady!" said Monsieur Delacour, still holding Mrs. Weasley's hand between his own two plump ones and beaming. "We are most honored at the approaching union of our two families! Let me present my wife, Apolline."**

**Madame Delacour glided forward and stooped to kiss Mrs. Weasley too.**

**"Enchant'e," she said. "Your 'usband 'as been telling us such amusing stories!"**

"Really Arther?" she turned to him slowly "I wonder what those stories were"

**Mr. Weasley gave a maniacal laugh; Mrs. Weasley threw him a look, upon which he became immediately silent and assumed an expression appropriate to the sickbed of a close friend.**

Everyone couldn't help but laugh. It was funny to hear about Molly and Arther.

**"And, of course, you 'ave met my leetle daughter, Gabrielle!" said Monsieur Delacour. Gabrielle was Fleur in miniature; eleven years old, with waist-length hair of pure, silvery blonde, she gave Mrs. Weasley a dazzling smile and hugged her, then threw Harry a glowing look, batting her eyelashes. Ginny cleared her throat loudly.**

"That's right Ginny, don't let her steal your man" Sirius smirked.

**"Well, come in, do!" said Mrs. Weasley brightly, and she ushered the Delacours into the house, with many "No, please!"s and "After you!'s and "Not at all!'s.**

**The Delacours, it soon transpired, were helpful, pleasant guests. They were pleased with everything and keen to assist with the preparations for the wedding. Monsieur Delacour pronounced everything from the seating plan to the bridesmaids' shoes "Charmant!" Madame Delacour was most accomplished at household spells and had the oven properly cleaned in a trice; Gabrielle followed her elder sister around, trying to assist in any way she could and jabbering away in rapid French.**

"That would be annoying" Sirius stated. Everyone told him to 'shut up' or 'I know'

**On the downside, the Burrow was not built to accommodate so many people. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were now sleeping in the sitting room, having shouted down Monsieur and Madame Delacour's protests and insisted they take their bedroom. Gabrielle was sleeping with Fleur in Percy's old room, and Bill would be sharing with Charlie, his best man, once Charlie arrived from Romania. Opportunities to make plans together became virtually nonexistent, and it was in desperation that Harry, Ron and Hermione took to volunteering to feed the chickens just to escape the overcrowded house.**

**"But she still won't leave us alone!" snarled Ron, and their second attempt at a meeting in the yard was foiled by the appearance of Mrs. Weasley carrying a large basket of laundry in her arms.**

"I'm determined, I think" she giggled.

**"Oh, good, you've fed the chickens," she called as she approached them. "We'd better shut them away again before the men arrive tomorrow... to put up the tent for the wedding," she explained, pausing to lean against the henhouse. She looked exhausted. "Millamant's Magic Marquees... they're very good. Bill's escorting them... You'd better stay inside while they're here, Harry. I must say it does complicate organizing a wedding, having all these security spells around the place."**

"Oh no, you're going to make him feel bad, honey" Arther told her sadly

She looked shocked, she doubted that was her intentions. "I don't mean to" she muttered quietly to herself.

**"I'm sorry," said Harry humbly.**

**"Oh, don't be silly, dear!" said Mrs. Weasley at once. "I didn't mean ¨C well, your safety's much more important! Actually, I've been wanting to ask you how you want to celebrate your birthday, Harry. Seventeen, after all, it's an important day..."**

"Oh, we get to hear about it" Lily said excited, everyone smiled at her.

**"I don't want a fuss," said Harry quickly, envisaging the additional strain this would put on them all. "Really, Mrs. Weasley, just a normal dinner would be fine... It's the day before the wedding..."**

**"Oh, well, if you're sure, dear. I'll invite Remus and Tonks, shall I? And how about Hagrid?"**

"Least I'll be there" Remus grinned, Happy to be there for Harry. James and Lily smiled at him. _At least one of us are there_ they both thought sadly

**"That'd be great," said Harry. "But please, don't go to loads of trouble."**

**"Not at all, not at all... It's no trouble..."**

**She looked at him, a long, searching look, then smiled a little sadly, straightened up, and walked away. Harry watched as she waved her wand near the washing line, and the damp clothes rose into the air to hang themselves up, and suddenly he felt a great wave of remorse for the inconvenience and the pain he was giving her.**

"He's such a kind boy, but he doesn't need to worry about that" Molly told everyone. They nodded. They knew that too.


	10. Horcruxes

"This is from when Harry's sixteen, this sixth year, so the year before this one we are reading" They all said ok and he started to read.

**Harry could feel the Felix Felicis wearing off as he creeped back into the castle. **

"How in Merlin's name did he get that, it takes three months to make" Lily told everyone and they looked impressed

**The front door had remained un locked for him, but on the third floor he met Peeves and only narrowly avoided detection by diving sideways through one of his shortcuts. By the time he got up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and pulled off his Invisibility Cloak, he was not surprised to find her in a most unhelpful mood. **

Everyone smiled, they had thought he was in Gryffindor but there thought was just confirmed.

**"What sort of time do you call this?" **

**"I'm really sorry — I had to go out for something important —" **

"I wonder what?" Remus asked cocking his head to the side with a thoughtful look on his face.

**"Well, the password changed at midnight, so you'll just have to sleep in the corridor, won't you?" **

"Wonder what time it is" Sirius shrugged.

**"You're joking!" said Harry. "Why did it have to change at midnight?" **

**"That's the way it is," said the Fat Lady. "If you're angry, go and take it up with the headmaster, he's the one who's tightened security." **

** "Fantastic," said Harry bitterly, looking around at the hard floor. "Really brilliant. Yeah, I would go and take it up with Dumbledore if he was here, because he's the one who wanted me to —" **

**"He is here," said a voice behind Harry. "Professor Dumbledore returned to the school an hour ago." **

"Why were you out of school? Sir?" Remus asked

"I don't know Mr Lupin"

**Nearly Headless Nick was gliding toward Harry, his head wob-bling as usual upon his ruff. **

**"I had it from the Bloody Baron, who saw him arrive," said Nick. "He appeared, according to the Baron, to be in good spirits, though a little tired, of course." **

**"Where is he?" said Harry, his heart leaping,**

"It's past midnight Harry, don't go to Dumbledore just now, he'll make you go to bed" Sirius wined

**"Oh, groaning and clanking up on the Astronomy Tower, it's a, favorite pastime of his —" **

**"Not the Bloody Baron — Dumbledore!" **

Some people laughed at Nick.

**"Oh — in his office," said Nick. "I believe, from what the Baron said, that he had business to attend to before turning in —" **

**"Yeah, he has," said Harry, excitement blazing in his chest at the prospect of telling Dumbledore he had secured the memory. He wheeled about and sprinted off again, ignoring the Fat Lady who was calling after him. **

"Harry" James smiled 

**"Come back! All right, I lied! I was annoyed you woke me up! The password's still 'tapeworm'!"**

"She shouldn't go shouting that out." Minerva Huffed disapprovingly

**But Harry was already hurtling back along the corridor and within minutes, he was saying "toffee eclairs" to Dumbledore's gar-goyle, which leapt aside, permitting Harry entrance onto the spiral staircase. **

"He knows the password, without asking anyone" James smiled "He must be there a lot"

Albus chuckled "Yes, I believe so, but Mr Potter, I think our young Mr Potter isn't there for pranks."

Some people chuckled as James looked down and sighed

**"Enter," said Dumbledore when Harry knocked. He sounded exhausted. Harry pushed open the door. There was Dumbledore's office, looking the same as ever, but with black, star-strewn skies beyond the windows. **

**"Good gracious, Harry," said Dumbledore in surprise. "To what do I owe this very late pleasure?" **

"I don't even know you could get surprised sir" Lily laughed

"You called Harry by his first name," Remus said surprised and impressed. Everyone else looked surprised at this. They hadn't known Dumbledore to call students by their first names.

"Yes, well, it seems we have a relationship more than just student and professor" he smiled

**"Sir — I've got it. I've got the memory from Slughorn." **

"Horace? Again? How is he involed?" Minerva asked suspiciously.

**Harry pulled out the tiny glass bottle and showed it to Dumbledore. For a moment or two, the headmaster looked stunned. Then his face split in a wide smile. **

**"Harry, this is spectacular news! Very well done indeed! I knew you could do it!" **

"Wow, that's good praise."

**All thought of the lateness of the hour apparently forgotten, he hurried around his desk, took the bottle with Slughorn's memory in his uninjured hand, and strode over to the cabinet where he kept the Pensieve. **

"Uninjured hand? Sir? And you have a Pensieve?" Remus said surprised

"I don't know about the hand, but yes, I have a Pensieve, I don't let anyone see it though. This shows just how close we are."

**"And now," said Dumbledore, placing the stone basin upon the desk and emptying the contents of the bottle into it. "Now, at last. we shall see. Harry, quickly . . ." **

James laughed, "You seem excited, sir"

**Harry bowed obediently over the Pensieve and felt his feet leave the office floor. . . . Once again he fell through darkness and landed in Horace Slughorn's office many years before. There was the much younger Slughorn, with his thick, shiny, straw-colored hair and his gingery-blond mustache, sitting again in the comfortable winged armchair in his office, his feet resting upon a velvet pouffe, a small glass of wine in one hand, the other rummaging in a box of crystallized pineapple. And there were the half dozen teenage boys sitting around Slughorn with Tom Riddle in the midst of them, Marvolo's gold-and-black ring gleaming on his finger. **

"Tom Riddle? Is that his full name?" Frank asked

"Yes, it is Mr Longbottom" everyone looked quite shocked they had never thought of Voldemort's real name.

**Dumbledore landed beside Harry just as Riddle asked, "Sir is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?" **

**"Tom, Tom, if I knew I couldn't tell you," said Slughorn, wagging his finger reprovingly at Riddle, though winking at the same time. "I must say, I'd like to know where you get your information, boy, more knowledgeable than half the staff, you are." **

"Why does that not surprise me" a few said darkly

**Riddle smiled; the other boys laughed and cast him admiring looks. **

Dumbledore sighed "And that was his charm" everyone looked like the understood

But some shuddered at the thought of people admiring him and the thought of a teenage Voldemort.

**"What with your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't, and your careful flattery of the people who matter — thank you for the pineapple, by the way, you're quite right, it is my favorite —" Several of the boys tittered again. "— I confidently expect you to rise to Minister of Magic within twenty years. Fifteen, if you keep sending me pineapple, I have ex-cellent contacts at the Ministry." **

"Thank god, that didn't happen." Lily let out a breathe.

**Tom Riddle merely smiled as the others laughed again. Harry noticed that he was by no means the eldest of the group of boys, but that they all seemed to look to him as their leader. **

"I bet most, if not all, of them became Death Eaters." Sirius snarled. Everyone nodded confidently

**"I don't know that politics would suit me, sir," he said when the laughter had died away. "I don't have the right kind of background, for one thing." **

**A couple of the boys around him smirked at each other. Harry was sure they were enjoying a private joke, undoubtedly about what they knew, or suspected, regarding their gang leader's famous ancestor. **

"So they all knew!" Sirius said, "that means they must have knew, about his father?"

**"Nonsense," said Slughorn briskly, "couldn't be plainer you come from decent Wizarding stock, abilities like yours. No, you'll go far, Tom, I've never been wrong about a student yet." **

"Slughorn" Lily sighed at her favourite teacher "You're wrong about him" she said to herself quietly

**The small golden clock standing upon Slughorn's desk chimed eleven o'clock behind him and he looked around. **

**"Good gracious, is it that time already? You'd better get going boys, or we'll all be in trouble. Lestrange, I want your essay by in tomorrow or it's detention. Same goes for you, Avery." **

"What did I tell you, all Death Eaters"

"No one disagreed, Sirius" James pointed out but he just shrugged

**One by one, the boys filed out of the room. Slughorn heaved himself out of his armchair and carried his empty glass over to his desk. A movement behind him made him look around; Riddle was still standing there. **

**"Look sharp, Tom, you don't want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and you a prefect.. ." **

"He was a prefect" Remus said in disgust. A lot of other's were wide-eyed.

"Yes, Mr Lupin. He was also Head Boy, and a straight O student. Every teacher loved him, apart from Dumbledore." Minerva told him in a sad voice. Everyone looked at her curiously, so she explained herself "He was two years below me." They all didn't know what to say so they turned to Dumbledore.

**"Sir, I wanted to ask you something." -'**

**"Ask away, then, m'boy, ask away. . . ." **

**"Sir, I wondered what you know about. . . about Horcruxes?' **

** Slughorn stared at him, his thick ringers absentmindedly clawing the stem of his wine glass. **

**"Project for Defense Against the Dark Arts, is it?" **

** But Harry could tell that Slughorn knew perfectly well that this was not schoolwork. **

"Yes, Horcruxes aren't studied in school"

**"Not exactly, sir," said Riddle. "I came across the term while reading and I didn't fully understand it." **

**"No . . . well. . . you'd be hard-pushed to find a book at Hogwarts that'll give you details on Horcruxes, Tom, that's very Dark stuff, very Dark indeed," said Slughorn. **

"We know that." Nearly everyone muttered

**"But you obviously know all about them, sir? I mean, a wizard like you — sorry, I mean, if you can't tell me, obviously — I just knew if anyone could tell me, you could — so I just thought I'd –" **

"Flattery, great." James said in a revolted tone.

**It was very well done, thought Harry, the hesitancy, the casual tone, the careful flattery, none of it overdone.**

Everyone was shook there head at this.

** He, Harry, had had too much experience of trying to wheedle information out of reluctant people not to recognize a master at work. **

Some people snorted. They wondered what Harry had wanted to know over the years.

**He could tell that Riddle wanted the information very, very much; perhaps had been working toward this moment for weeks. **

"Most likely."

**"Well," said Slughorn, not looking at Riddle, but fiddling with the ribbon on top of his box of crystallized pineapple, "well, it can't hurt to give you an overview, of course. Just so that you understand the term. A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." **

** "I don't quite understand how that works, though, sir," said Riddle. **

** His voice was carefully controlled, but Harry could sense his excitement. **

"That is just disgusting" Remus couldn't help but say, he looked a little sick

**"Well, you split your soul, you see," said Slughorn, "and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But of course, existence in such a form ..." **

"That's why he didn't die, when the Killing curse meant for the boy backfired" Moody informed them

**Slughorn's face crumpled and Harry found himself remembering words he had heard nearly two years before: "I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost. . . but still, I was alive." **

"Who want that" Lily sat wide-eyed

"Apparently Voldemort, Lils." But he too looked a little shocked.

**"... few would want it, Tom, very few. Death would be preferable." **

Sirius shuddered "No kidding"

**But Riddle's hunger was now apparent; his expression was greedy, he could no longer hide his longing. **

Most people shuddered

**"How do you split your soul?" **

**"Well," said Slughorn uncomfortably, "you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature." **

**"But how do you do it?" **

Most closed there eyes, that was just disgusting, he was eager. Too eager.

**"By an act of evil — the supreme act of evil. By commiting murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: He would encase the torn portion —" **

"No wonder he has so many. He's killed too many people." Alice added sadly.

**"Encase? But how — ?" **

**"There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't know!" said Slughoin shaking his head like an old elephant bothered by mosquitoes. " Do I look as though I have tried it — do I look like a killer?" **

**"No, sir, of course not," said Riddle quickly. "I'm sorry ... I didn't mean to offend . . ." **

Frank snorted "No, of course not. Just a little eager to forget who you're asking."

**"Not at all, not at all, not offended," said Slughorn gruffly, "It is natural to feel some curiosity about these things. . . . Wizards of a certain caliber have always been drawn to that aspect of magic. . . ." **

** "Yes, sir," said Riddle. "What I don't understand, though — just out of curiosity — I mean, would one Horcrux be much use? Can you only split your soul once? Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces, I mean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerfully magical number, wouldn't seven — ?" **

Everyone shook there heads at that. The. Bastard.

**"Merlin's beard, Tom!" yelped Slughorn. "Seven! Isn't it bad enough to think of killing one person? And in any case . . . bad enough to divide the soul . . . but to rip it into seven pieces . . ." **

"Exactly?"

**Slughorn looked deeply troubled now: He was gazing at Riddle as though he had never seen him plainly before, and Harry could tell that he was regretting entering into the conversation at all. **

"I would be too."

**"Of course," he muttered, "this is all hypothetical, what we're discussing, isn't it? All academic . . ." **

**"Yes, sir, of course," said Riddle quickly. **

"No, sir, of course not" Sirius said sarcastically but was ignored.

**"But all the same, Tom . . . keep it quiet, what I've told — that's to say, what we've discussed. People wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about Horcruxes. It's a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know. . . . Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it. ..." **

_Good riddance _mostly everyone thought.

**"I won't say a word, sir," said Riddle, and he left, but not before Harry had glimpsed his face, which was full of that same wild happiness it had worn when he had first found out that he was a wizard, the sort of happiness that did not enhance his handsome features, but made them, somehow, less human. . . . **

"I don't know what it is to be happy about? He's planing on dividing his soul? What's nice about that?" Alice wondered out loud.

**"Thank you, Harry," said Dumbledore quietly. "Let us go. . . ." **

** When Harry landed back on the office floor Dumbledore was ; already sitting down behind his desk. Harry sat too and waited for Dumbledore to speak. **

**"I have been hoping for this piece of evidence for a very long time," said Dumbledore at last. "It confirms the theory on which I have been working, it tells me that I am right, and also how very far there is still to go. ..." **

"You knew?" Albus nodded "Seems so"

**Harry suddenly noticed that every single one of the old head-masters and headmistresses in the portraits around the walls was awake and listening in on their conversation. A corpulent, red nosed wizard had actually taken out an ear trumpet. **

**"Well, Harry," said Dumbledore, "I am sure you understood the significance of what we just heard. At the same age as you are now, give or take a few months, Tom Riddle was doing all he could to find out how to make himself immortal." **

Everyone looked at each other and they knew they were thinking the same _That's definitely not a nice thought._

**"You think he succeeded then, sir?" asked Harry. "He made a Horcrux? And that's why he didn't die when he attacked me? He had a Horcrux hidden somewhere? A bit of his soul was safe?" **

"That's what I said" Moody agreed

**"A bit... or more," said Dumbledore. "You heard Voldemort, what he particularly wanted from Horace was an opinion on what would happen to the wizard who created more than one Horcrux, what would happen to the wizard so determined to evade death that he would be prepared to murder many times, rip his soul repeatedly, so as to store it in many, separately concealed Horcrux. No book would have given him that information. As far as I know — as far, I am sure, as Voldemort knew — no wizard had ever done more than tear his soul in two." **

"That's still too much" Lily said out loud

**Dumbledore paused for a moment, marshaling his thought, and then said, "Four years ago, I received what I considered certain proof that Voldemort had split his soul." **

"What?" everyone was now confused

**"Where?" asked Harry. "How?" **

**"You handed it to me, Harry," said Dumbledore. "The diary, Riddles diary, the one giving instructions on how to reopen the Chamber of Secrets." **

"The Chamber of Secrets?" everyone looked startled.

"But Albus, that doesn't exist? Does it?" Minerva asked faintly.

"It seems so, and it seems Harry knows how …" No one like that thought. Little Harry was just too much for them to handle.

**"I don't understand, sir," said Harry. **

**"Well, although I did not see the Riddle who came out of the diary, what you described to me was a phenomenon I had never witnessed. A mere memory starting to act and think for itself? A mere memory, sapping the life out of the girl into whose hands it had fallen? No, something much more sinister had lived inside that book ... A fragment of soul, I was almost sure of it. The diary had been a Horcrux. But this raised as many questions as it answered. What intrigued and alarmed me most was that that diary had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard." **

**"I still don't understand," said Harry. **

**"Well, it worked as a Horcrux is supposed to work — in other words, the fragment of soul concealed inside it was kept safe and had undoubtedly played its part in preventing the death of its owner. But there could be no doubt that Riddle really wanted that diary read, wanted the piece of his soul to inhabit or possess somebody else, so that Slytherin's monster would be unleashed again." **

"So it's true then, there really is a monster down there." Lily whispered weakly. This alarmed people.

**"Well, he didn't want his hard work to be wasted," said Harry. "He wanted people to know he was Slytherin's heir, because he couldn't take credit at the time." **

"Oh … that would explain a lot … he was Slytherin's heir." Sirius added quietly

**"Quite correct," said Dumbledore, nodding. "But don't you see, Harry, that if he intended the diary to be passed to, or planted on, some future Hogwarts student, he was being remarkably blase about that precious fragment of his soul concealed within it. The point of a Horcrux is, as Professor Slughorn explained, to keep part of the self hidden and safe, not to fling it into somebody else's path and run the risk that they might destroy it — as indeed happened: That particular fragment of soul is no more; you saw to that. **

"That's amazing" Aberforth said suddenly that made people jump, but they nodded with him

**The careless way in which Voldemort regarded this Horcrux seemed most ominous to me. It suggested that he must have made — or had been planning to make — more Horcruxes, so that the loss of his first would not be so detrimental. I did not wish to believe it, but nothing else seemed to make sense. Then you told me, two years later, that on the night that Voldemort returned to his body, he made a most illuminating and alarming statement to his Death Eaters. 'I who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.' That was what you told me he said. 'Further than anybody!' And I thought I knew what that meant, though the Death Eaters did not. He was referring to his Horcruxes, Horcruxes in the plural, Harry, which I don't believe any other wizard has ever had. Yet it fitted: Lord Voldomort has seemed to grow less human with the passing years, and the transformation he had undergone seemed to me to be only explainable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call 'usual evil' . . ." **

"That makes so much sense." Remus said importantly with the air of someone in thought

**"So he's made himself impossible to kill by murdering other people?" said Harry. "Why couldn't he make a Sorcerer's Stone, or steal one, if he was so interested in immortality?" **

**"Well, we know that he tried to do just that, five years ago," said Dumbledore. "But there are several reasons why, I think, a Sorcerer's Stone would appeal less than Horcruxes to Lord Voldemort, **

"Oh, so he tries that too. Will he not just give up. For Merlin's sake." Lily nearly yelled sounding agitated and annoyed. Some people chuckled at this.

**"While the Elixir of Life does indeed extend life, it must lie drunk regularly, for all eternity, if the drinker is to maintain the immortality. Therefore, Voldemort would be entirely dependant on the Elixir, and if it ran out, or was contaminated, or if the Stone was stolen, he would die just like any other man. Voldemort likes to operate alone, remember. I believe that he would have found the thought of being dependent, even on the Elixir, intolerable. Of course he was prepared to drink it if it would take him out of the horrible part-life to which he was condemned after attacking you, but only to regain a body. Thereafter, I am convinced, he intended to continue to rely on his Horcruxes. He would need nothing more, if only he could regain a human form. He was already immortal, you see ... or as close to immortal as any man can be. But now, Harry, armed with this information, the crucial memory you have succeeded in procuring for us, we are closer to the secret of finishing Lord Voldemort than anyone has ever been before. You heard him, Harry: 'Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces . . . isn't seven the most powerfully magical number . . .' Isn't seven the most powerfully magical number. Yes, I think the idea of a seven-part soul would greatly appeal to Lord Voldemort." **

"This is just bloody great. They have to find all of them." Alice said leanin back in her chair horror-struck

**"He made seven Horcruxes?" said Harry, horror-struck, while several of the portraits on the walls made similar noises of shock mid outrage. "But they could be anywhere in the world — hidden — buried or invisible —" **

"Oh, that is just bloody fantastic." Aberforth pointed out. This was going to be difficult.

**"I am glad to see you appreciate the magnitude of the problem," said Dumbledore calmly. "But firstly, no, Harry, not seven Hor-cruxes: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. That was the part of him that lived a spectral existence for so many years during his exile; without that, he has no self at all. That seventh piece of soul will be the last that anybody wishing to kill Voldemort must attack — the piece that lives in his body." **

"So, you still have to fight him anyway." Signed Arther.

**"But the six Horcruxes, then," said Harry, a little desperately, "how are we supposed to find them?" **

"Good, he see's the problem" Moody says. Very annoyed that Voldemort was making it so hard.

**"You are forgetting . . . you have already destroyed one of them. And I have destroyed another." **

**"You have?" said Harry eagerly. **

**"Yes indeed," said Dumbledore, and he raised his blackened, burned-looking hand. "The ring, Harry. Marvolo's ring. And a terrible curse there was upon it too. Had it not been — forgive me the lack of seemly modesty — for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort's soul. The ring is no longer a Horcrux." **

"So that's how you injured your hand sir." Lily said thinking all of this over.

"It would seem so, Mrs Potter."

**"But how did you find it?" **

"Thank you, for asking that obvious question Harry." Remus said looking very thoughtful at this information he had just had.

**"Well, as you now know, for many years I have made it my business to discover as much as I can about Voldemort's past life. I have traveled widely, visiting those places he once knew. I stumbled across the ring hidden in the ruin of the Gaunt's house. It seem that once Voldemort had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it anymore. He hid it, protected by many powerful enchantments, in the shack where his ancestors had once lived (Morfin having been carted off to Azkaban, of course), never guessing that I might one day take the trouble to visit the ruin, or that I might be keeping an eye open for traces of magical concealment. **

**"However, we should not congratulate ourselves too heartily. You destroyed the diary and I the ring, but if we are right in our theory of a seven-part soul, four Horcruxes remain." **

"And here were it starts" Sirius said shaking his head

**"And they could be anything?" said Harry. "They could be oh, in tin cans or, I dunno, empty potion bottles. . . ." **

**"You are thinking of Portkeys, Harry, which must be ordinary objects, easy to overlook. But would Lord Voldemort use tin cans or old potion bottles to guard his own precious soul? You are forgetting what I have showed you. Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in magical history; these things, suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxr with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor." **

**"The diary wasn't that special." **

"To him it was." 

**"The diary, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the Hire of Slytherin. I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance." **

Everyone thought so too

**"So, the other Horcruxes?" said Harry. "Do you think you know what they are, sir?" **

**"I can only guess," said Dumbledore. "For the reasons I have already given, I believe that Lord Voldemort would prefer objects that, in themselves, have a certain grandeur. I have therefore trawled back through Voldemort's past to see if I can find evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around him." **

**"The locket!" said Harry loudly, "Hufflepuff's cup!" **

"The locket Harry talked about in the last book" Lily said loudly and everyone nodded

**"Yes," said Dumbledore, smiling, "I would be prepared to bet — perhaps not my other hand — but a couple of fingers, that they be-came Horcruxes three and four. The remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are more of a problem, but I will hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Hufflepuff and Slytherin, he set out to track down objects owned by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Four objects from the four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Voldemort's imagination. I cannot answer for whether he ever managed to find anything of Ravenclaw's. I am confident, however, that the only known relic of Gryffindor remains safe." **

**Dumbledore pointed his blackened fingers to the wall behind him, where a ruby-encrusted sword reposed within a glass case. **

"The sword of Gryffindor" everyone said in absolute awe. Even Dumbledore looked surprised.

**"Do you think that's why he really wanted to come back to Hogwarts, sir?" said Harry. "To try and find something from one of the other founders?"**

**"My thoughts precisely," said Dumbledore. "But unfortunately, that does not advance us much further, for he was turned away, or so I believe, without the chance to search the school. I am forced to conclude that he never fulfilled his ambition of collecting four founders' objects. He definitely had two — he may have found three — that is the best we can do for now." **

**"Even if he got something of Ravenclaw's or of Gryffindor's, that leaves a sixth Horcrux," said Harry, counting on his fingers. "Unless he's got both?" **

**"I don't think so," said Dumbledore. "I think I know what the sixth Horcrux is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the snake, Nagini?' **

"You're kidding? How in Merlin's name do they kill that thing, it's always with him." Alice nearly shouted, she was so frustrated.

**"The snake?" said Harry, startled. "You can use animals as Horcruxes?" **

"It's not wise." Albus explained thoughtfully.

**"Well, it is inadvisable to do so," said Dumbledore, "because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business. However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents' house with the intention of killing you. He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. **

Lily and James and a few others looked sick "He was going to use Harry's death, as a Horcrux?" No one answered. That was a disturbing thought.

**He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death. **

Most shuddered.

**As we know, he failed. After an interval of some years, however, he used Nagini to kill an old Muggle man, and it might then have occurred to him to turn her into his last Horcrux. She underlines the Slytherin connection, which enhances Lord Voldemorts mystique; I think he is perhaps as fond of her as he can be of anything; he certainly likes to keep her close, and he seems to have an unusual amount of control over her, even for a Parselmouth." **

"Oh … Yeah … I forgot about him being Parselmouth" a few muttered but then shrugged.

**"So," said Harry, "the diary's gone, the ring's gone. The cup, the locket, and the snake are still intact, and you think there might be a Horcrux that was once Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's?" **

"Well, yes, that's about it" Albus said with his brows together. Thinking.

**"An admirably succinct and accurate summary, yes," said Dumbledore, bowing his head. **

**"So . . . are you still looking for them, sir? Is that where you've been going when you've been leaving the school?" **

"Oh" a lot of people said.

**"Correct," said Dumbledore. "I have been looking for a very long time. I think. . . perhaps ... I may be close to finding another one. There are hopeful signs." **

** "And if you do," said Harry quickly, "can I come with you and help get rid of it?" **

** Dumbledore looked at Harry very intently for a moment before saying, "Yes, I think so." **

"So, this is were Harry's mission begins" Molly sighed and rubbed her eyes.

**"I can?" said Harry, thoroughly taken aback. **

**"Oh yes," said Dumbledore, smiling slightly. "I think you have earned that right." **

Sirius smiled "I'd love to kill a bit of Voldemort," when people looked at him funny he said "C'mon to think you're part of the reason he's gone. You'd feel brilliant." They nodded with him

**Harry felt his heart lift. It was very good not to hear words of caution and protection for once. The headmasters and head-mistresses around the walls seemed less impressed by Dumbledore's decision; Harry saw a few of them shaking their heads and Phineas Nigellus actually snorted. **

"Oh will you just shut up." Sirius said like he was talking to the potriat right there.

**"Does Voldemort know when a Horcrux is destroyed, sir? Can he feel it?" Harry asked, ignoring the portraits. **

"Intresting question …" everyone looked intense.

**"A very interesting question, Harry. I believe not. I believe that Voldemort is now so immersed in evil, and these crucial parts of himself have been detached for so long, he does not feel as we do. Perhaps, at the point of death, he might be aware of his loss . . . but he was not aware, for instance, that the diary had been destroyed until he forced the truth out of Lucius Malfoy. When Voldemort discovered that the diary had been mutilated and robbed of all its powers, I am told that his anger was terrible to behold." **

"I can imagine" most muttered horrified at the thought.

**"But I thought he meant Lucius Malfoy to smuggle it into Hogwarts?" **

**"Yes, he did, years ago, when he was sure he would be able to create more Horcruxes, but still Lucius was supposed to wait for Voldemorts say-so, and he never received it, for Voldemort vanished shortly after giving him the diary. No doubt he thought that Lucius would not dare do anything with the Horcrux other than guard it carefully, but he was counting too much upon Lucius's fear of a master who had been gone for years and whom Lucius believed dead. Of course, Lucius did not know what the diary really was. I understand that Voldemort had told him the diary would cause the Chamber of Secrets to reopen because it was cleverly enchanted. Had Lucius known he held a portion of his masters soul in his hands, he would undoubtedly have treated it with more reverence — but instead he went ahead and carried out the old plan for his own ends. By planting the diary upon Arthur Weasleys daughter, he hoped to discredit Arthur and get rid of a highly incriminating magical object in one stroke. **

"Th-th-that" Arther seemed unable to form words but his face was built in fury.

**Ah, poor Lucius . . . what with Voldemorts fury about the fact that he threw away the Horcrux for his own gain, and the fiasco at the Ministry last year, I would not be surprised if he is not secretly glad to be safe in Azkaban at the moment." **

Everyone laughed at the thought of him there.

**Harry sat in thought for a moment, then asked, "So if all of his Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort could be killed?" **

**"Yes, I think so," said Dumbledore. "Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a mortal man with a maimed and diminished soul. Never forget, though, that while his soul may be damaged beyond repair, his brain and his magical powers remain intact. It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a wizard like Voldemort even without his Horcruxes." **

**"But I haven't got uncommon skill and power," said Harry, be-fore he could stop himself. **

"I think you do." Everyone agreed. He certainly did.

**"Yes, you have," said Dumbledore firmly. "You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can —" **

**"I know!" said Harry impatiently. "I can love!" It was only with difficulty that he stopped himself adding, "Big deal!" **

Some people laughed, "it seems you say that a lot sir" Sirius gasped though laughs

**"Yes, Harry, you can love," said Dumbledore, who looked as though he knew perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. "Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are, Harry." **

"Yeah, that's true" Lily said mother and lovingly with made everyone smile.

**"So, when the prophecy says that I'll have 'power the Dark Lord knows not,' it just means — love?" asked Harry, feeling a little let down. **

** "Yes — just love," said Dumbledore. "But Harry, never forget that what the prophecy says is only significant because Voldemort made it so. I told you this at the end of last year. Voldemort singled you out as the person who would be most dangerous to him — and in doing so, he made you the person who would be most dangerous to him!" **

"I don't understand that?" most said quietly.

**"But it comes to the same —" **

**"No, it doesn't!" said Dumbledore, sounding impatient now. Pointing at Harry with his black, withered hand, he said, "You are setting too much store by the prophecy!" **

"Oh I don't think I've even seen you like that" everyone muttered looking at the headmaster, surprised.

"Well, it seems I show a lot of emotion around Harry." He smiled and went back to really.

**"But," spluttered Harry, "but you said the prophecy means —" **

**"If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not! Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?" **

Remus looked somewhat annoyed when he said loudly to everyone "I understand now" Lily nodded a little and Dumbledore nodded and smiled. Everyone else looked completely confused.

**"But," said Harry, bewildered, "but last year, you said one of us would have to kill the other —" **

**"Harry, Harry, only because Voldemort made a grave error, and acted on Professor Trelawney's words! If Voldemort had never murdered your father, would he have imparted in you a furious desire for revenge? Of course not!**

Some were nodding along with the words

** If he had not forced your mother to die for you, would he have given you a magical protection he could not penetrate? Of course not, Harry! **

Realization were dawning on people.

**Don't you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! Voldemort is no different! Always he was on the lookout for the one who would challenge him. **

"Good" Sirius smirked. "At least he knows someone would try, least he's not that arrogant"

**He heard the prophecy and he leapt into action, with the result that he not only handpicked the man most likely to finish him, he handed him uniquely deadly weapons!" **

Some people still looked as if they would never see what Albus meant in a million years.

**"But —" **

**"It is essential that you understand this!" said Dumbledore, standing up and striding about the room, his glittering robes swooshing in his wake; Harry had never seen him so agitated. **

"Us either" most muttered

**"By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job! **

"How?" Sirius muttered, not knowing how that was true.

**It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders, **

Everyone paused. "Harry can speak Parselmouth?" James muttered feebly. Dumbledore looked thoughtful at this, everyone didn't know what to say.

**and yet, Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort's followers!" **

"Well done son." James said proudly.

**"Of course I haven't!" said Harry indignantly. "He killed my mum and dad!" **

Everyone sighed and smiled sadly.

**"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dumbledore loudly.**

"I understand now." Everyone understood this now.

** "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror?**

"I wonder what he saw." Lily said curiously.

"He saw you." Albus smiled and then when she looked surprised he said "I know what my words meant" and then everyone smiled.

** Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did not! But he knows it now. You have flitted into Lord Voldemort's mind without damage to yourself, but he cannot possess you without enduring mortal agony, as he discovered in the Ministry. **

"Least that's something" James muttered but he was happy about that.

**I do not think he understands why, Harry, but then, he was in such a hurry to mutilate his own soul, he never paused to understand the incomparable power of a soul that is untarnished and whole." **

** "But, sir," said Harry, making valiant efforts not to sound argu-mentative, "it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him, or —" **

** "Got to?" said Dumbledore. "Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! We both know it! Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!"**

Everyone caught on to everything at last. "Yes, this isn't about the prophecy." James muttered. "This is about his own feelings. What he actually wants"

** Harry watched Dumbledore striding up and down in front of him, and thought. He thought of his mother, his father, and Sirius. He thought of Cedric Diggory.**

Everyone paused and thought for a moment.

** He thought of all the terrible deeds he knew Lord Voldemort had done. A flame seemed to leap inside his chest, searing his throat. **

**"I'd want him finished," said Harry quietly. "And I'd want to do it." **

**"Of course you would!" cried Dumbledore. "You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal. ... In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy! But Voldemort continues to set store by the prophecy. He will continue to hunt you . . . which makes it certain, really, that —" **

**"That one of us is going to end up killing the other," said Harry. "Yes." **

"Finally, everyone makes sense!" James shouted cheerfully. Which cause a few laughs.

**But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world. **

"Yeah, he's right" Lily smiled.

"He's proud Lils." James couldn't help but blunder out. He felt it should be the other way around but in all ways other than age Harry was older than him. He felt proud of his son, and proud that his son was proud of him.

Everyone laughed at James's outburst. "So shall I continue, now we know everything?" Albus asked and they smiled at him as to say yes. So he smiled back and began …


	11. The Will Of Albus Dumbledore

**He was walking along a mountain road in the cool blue light of dawn. **

"I thought he was at the burrow?" everyone looked confused? _Why was Harry walking across the mountain road?_

**Far below, swathed in mist, was the shadow of a small town. Was the man he sought down there, the man he needed so badly he could think of little else, the man who held the answer, the answer to his problem...?**

**"Oi, wake up."**

"He was dreaming? That was a strange dream …" Lily said looking concerned.

**Harry opened his eyes. He was lying again on the camp bed in Ron's dingy attic room. The sun had not yet risen and the room was still shadowy. Pigwidgeon was asleep with his head under his tiny wing. The scar on Harry's forehead was prickling.**

"He was inside Voldemort's head." Sirius states matter-of-factly. Nearly everyone was just shaking here head.

**"You were muttering in your sleep."**

**"Was I?"**

**"Yeah. 'Gregorovitch.' You kept saying 'Gregorovitch.'"**

"The wand maker?" Lily asked Remus

"Yeah, he's a wand maker" Remus said looking strangely uncertain.

**Harry was not wearing his glasses; Ron's face appeared slightly blurred.**

**"Who's Gregorovitch?"**

**"I dunno, do I? You were the one saying it."**

A few people laughed, how they liked Ron.

**Harry rubbed his forehead, thinking. He had a vague idea he had heard the name before, but he could not think where.**

**"I think Voldemort's looking for him."**

**"Poor bloke," said Ron fervently.**

Some people chuckled "Yeah, poor bloke"

**Harry sat up, still rubbing his scar, now wide awake. He tried to remember exactly what he had seen in the dream, but all that came back was a mountainous horizon and the outline of the little village cradled in a deep valley.**

**"I think he's abroad."**

**"Who, Gregorovitch?"**

Now everyone laughed, Ron was a bloody idiot. But he was nice, and funny

**"Voldemort. I think he's somewhere abroad, looking for Gregorovitch. It didn't look like anywhere in Britain."**

**"You reckon you were seeing into his mind again?"**

**Ron sounded worried.**

"He has a right to be, Harry" James stated

**"Do me a favor and don't tell Hermione," said Harry. "Although how she expects me to stop seeing stuff in my sleep..."**

"I have to agree with him there." Minerva said sadly.

**He gazed up at little Pigwidgeon's cage, thinking...Why was the name "Gregorovitch" familiar?**

**"I think," he said slowly, "he's got something to do with Quidditch. There's some connection, but I can't - I can't think what it is."**

"No, he hasn't?" Lily said looking worried

**"Quidditch?" said Ron. "Sure you're not thinking of Gorgovitch?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Dragomir Gorgovitch, Chaser, transferred to the Chudley Cannons for a record fee two years ago. Record holder for most Quaffle drops in a season."**

Everyone laugh but James looked worried, someone could hold a record like that.

**"No," said Harry. "I'm definitely not thinking of Gorgovitch."**

**"I try not to either," said Ron. "Well, happy birthday anyway."**

"Oh, yeah, he's seventeen" Lily clapped her hands excitedly.

**"Wow - that's right, I forgot! I'm seventeen!"**

"How can someone forget that?" Sirius said shaking his head

Frank looked at him and said very seriously "I think he had other stuff on his mind Sirius" and this reminded everyone he wasn't a normal teenager.

**Harry seized the wand lying beside his camp bed, pointed it at the cluttered desk where he had left his glasses, and said, "Accio Glasses!" Although they were only around a foot away, there was something immensely satisfying about seeing them zoom toward him, at least until they poked him in the eye.**

"James done that too." Sirius couldn't help but say. James rolled his eyes.

**"Slick," snorted Ron.**

"Like he could do better" James said in a playfully challenging voice.

**Reveling in the removal of his Trace, Harry sent Ron's possessions flying around the room, causing Pigwidgeon to wake up and flutter excitedly around his cage. Harry also tried tying the laces of his trainers by magic (the resultant knot took several minutes to untie by hand) and, purely for the pleasure of it, turned the orange robes on Ron's Chudley Cannons posters bright blue.**

**"I'd do your fly by hand, though," Ron advised Harry, sniggering when Harry immediately checked it. "Here's your present. Unwrap it up here, it's not for my mother's eyes."**

Molly looked round and eyed the book "Do I want to know?"

**"A book?" said Harry as he took the rectangular parcel. "Bit of a departure from tradition, isn't it?"**

**"This isn't your average book," said Ron. "It'd pure gold: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Explains everything you need to know about girls. If only I'd had this last year I'd have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would've known how to get going with... Well, Fred and George gave me a copy, and I've learned a lot. You'd be surprised, it's not all about wandwork, either."**

Everyone had to laugh, they just couldn't help it. It was funny.

**When they arrived in the kitchen they found a pile of presents waiting on the table. Bill and Monsieur Delacour were finishing their breakfasts, while Mrs. Weasley stood chatting to them over the frying pan.**

**"Arthur told me to wish you a happy seventeenth, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, beaming at him. "He had to leave early for work, but he'll be back for dinner. That's our present on top."**

"Thank you Molly." Lily said while James said "Thank you Arther." They both smiled and blushed.

**Harry sat down, took the square parcel she had indicated, and unwrapped it. Inside was a watch very like the one Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had given Ron for his seventeenth; it was gold, with stars circling around the race instead of hands.**

Everyone beamed.

**"It's traditional to give a wizard a watch when he comes of age," said Mrs. Weasley, watching him anxiously from beside the cooker. "I'm afraid that one isn't new like Ron's, it was actually my brother Fabian's and he wasn't terribly careful with his possessions, it's a bit dented on the back, but -"**

Everyone looked down sadly. They knew what had happened to Fabian. Molly started sobbing

**The rest of her speech was lost; Harry had got up and hugged her. He tried to put a lot of unsaid things into the hug and perhaps she understood them, because she patted his cheek clumsily when he released her, then waved her wand in a slightly random way, causing half a pack of bacon to flop out of the frying pan onto the floor.**

Molly smiled to herself.

**"Happy birthday, Harry!" said Hermione, hurrying into the kitchen and adding her own present to the top of the pile. "It's not much, but I hope you like it. What did you get him?" she added to Ron, who seemed not to hear her.**

Remus laughed "yeah" he gasped sarcastically.

**"Come on, then, open Hermione's!" said Ron.**

"Nice, subject change."

**She had bought him a new Sneakoscope. **

"Handy"

**The other packages contained an enchanted razor from Bill and Fleur ("Ah yes, zis will give you ze smoothest shave you will ever 'ave," Monsieur Delacour assured him, "but you must tell it clearly what you want...ozzerwise you might find you 'ave a leetle less hair zan you would like..."), chocolates from the Delacours, and an enormous box of the latest Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes merchandise from Fred and George.**

"What's that?" Arther and Molly asked curiously

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione did not linger at the table, as the arrival of Madame Delacour, Fleur, and Gabrielle made the kitchen uncomfortably crowded.**

**"I'll pack these for you," Hermione said brightly, taking Harry's presents out of his arms as the three of them headed back upstairs. "I'm nearly done, I'm just waiting for the rest of your underpants to come out of the wash, Ron -"**

Everyone burst out laughing. Poor Ron.l

**Ron's splutter was interrupted by the opening of a door on the first-floor landing.**

**"Harry, will you come in here a moment?"**

**It was Ginny. **

A few people started chuckling, "Let's hear if what we guessed was true." Sirius couldn't help but say to the rest of them. But they just rolled their eyes.

**Ron came to an abrupt halt, but Hermione took him by the elbow and tugged him on up the stairs. **

"Looks like Ron knows what it is too" he smirked.

**Feeling nervous, Harry followed Ginny into her room.**

**He had never been inside it before. It was small, but bright. There was a large poster of the Wizarding band the Weird Sisters on one wall, and a picture of Gwenog Jones, Captain of the all-witch Quidditch team the Holyhead Harpies, on the other. A desk stood facing the open window, which looked out over the orchard where he and Ginny had once played a two-a-side Quidditch with Ron and Hermione, and which now housed a large, pearly white marquee. The golden flag on top was level with Ginny's window.**

**Ginny looked up into Harry's face, took a deep breath, and said, "Happy seventeenth."**

**"Yeah...thanks."**

"Awkward" James, Remus and Sirius said in union

**She was looking at him steadily; he however, found it difficult to look back at her; it was like gazing into a brilliant light.**

**"Nice view," he said feebly, pointing toward with window.**

Most laughed. What a feeble subject

**She ignored this. He could not blame her.**

"Me, too"

**"I couldn't think what to get you," she said.**

**"You didn't have to get me anything."**

**She disregarded this too.**

**"I didn't know what would be useful. Nothing too big, because you wouldn't be able to take it with you."**

**He chanced a glance at her. She was not tearful; that was one of the many wonderful things about Ginny, she was rarely weepy. He had sometimes thought that having six brothers must have toughened her up.**

"Wow, you have a big family" Lily said, a little amused, she hadn't thought about that before. Molly and Arther just grinned at each other.

**She took a step closer to him.**

"Oh" Sirius muttered cheerfully. He knew where this was going

**"So then I thought, I'd like you to have something to remember me by, you know, if you meet some veela when you're off doing whatever you're doing."**

**"I think dating opportunities are going to be pretty thin on the ground, to be honest."**

Lily sighed "Yeah, I think you can cross that off the list"

**"There's the silver lining I've been looking for," she whispered, and then she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before, and Harry was kissing her back, and it was blissful oblivion better than firewhisky; she was the only real thing in the world, Ginny, the feel of her, one hand at her back and one in her long, sweet-smelling hair - The door banged open behind them and they jumped apart.**

**"Oh," said Ron pointedly. "Sorry."**

Everyone burst out laughing "Yeah, I can tell he's really sorry!" Remus added though laughs

**"Ron!" Hermione was just behind him, slight out of breath. There was a strained silence, then Ginny had said in a flat little voice, "Well, happy birthday anyway, Harry."**

**Ron's ears were scarlet; Hermione looked nervous. Harry wanted to slam the door in their faces, but it felt as though a cold draft had entered the room when the door opened, and his shining moment had popped like a soap bubble. All the reasons for ending his relationship with Ginny, for staying well away from her, seemed to have slunk inside the room with Ron, and all happy forgetfulness was gone.**

"Why did they break up?" Lily asked, she thought they were still together.

Sirius was upset "Aw, I liked hearing him having a normal teenage life." Most nodded

**He looked at Ginny, wanting to say something, though he hardly knew what, but she had turned her back on him. He thought that she might have succumbed, for once, to tears. He could not do anything to comfort her in front of Ron.**

"Stupid brother." Most muttered to themselves.

**"I'll see you later," he said, and followed the other two out of the bedroom.**

**Ron marched downstairs, though the still-crowded kitchen and into the yard, and Harry kept pace with him all the way, Hermione trotting along behind them looking scared.**

**Once he reached the seclusion of the freshly mown lawn, Ron rounded on Harry.**

**"You ditched her. What are you doing now, messing her around?"**

"I don't think he is 'messing around with her'" Remus said, "I think he will have an important reason."

**"I'm not messing her around," said Harry, as Hermione caught up with them.**

**"Ron -"**

**But Ron held up a hand to silence her.**

**"She was really cut up when you ended it -"**

**"So was I. You know why I stopped it, and it wasn't because I wanted to."**

"See, he's upset too."

**"Yeah, but you go snogging her now and she's just going to get her hopes up again -"**

**"She's not an idiot, she knows it can't happen, she's not expecting us to - to end up married, or -"**

**As he said it, a vivid picture formed in Harry's mind of Ginny in a white dress, marrying a tall, faceless, and unpleasant stranger.**

**In one spiraling moment it seemed to hit him: Her future was free and unencumbered, whereas his...he could see nothing but Voldemort ahead.**

Most bowed their heads sadly to the boy. That wasn't fair on him. He didn't have a future.

**"If you keep groping her every chance you get -"**

"That was one time" Sirius said frustrated with Ron

**"It won't happen again," said Harry harshly. The day was cloudless, but he felt as though the sun had gone in. "Okay?"**

**Ron looked half resentful, half sheepish; he rocked backward and forward on his feet for a moment, then said, "Right then, well, that's...yeah."**

"Yeah, he handled that well" Sirius nodded harshly.

Molly and Arther looked at him and Molly added "He was just being a big brother to his only sister."

**Ginny did not seek another one-to-one meeting with Harry for the rest of the day, nor by any look or gesture did she show that they had shared more than polite conversation in her room. Nevertheless, Charlie's arrival came as a relief to Harry. It provided a distraction, watching Mrs. Weasley force Charlie into a chair, raise her wand threateningly, and announce that he was about to get a proper haircut.**

**As Harry's birthday dinner would have stretched the Burrow's kitchen to breaking point even before the arrival of Charlie, Lupin, Tonks, and Hagrid, several tables were placed end to end in the garden. Fred and George bewitched a number of purple lanterns all emblazoned with a large number 17, to hang in midair over the guests. Thanks to Mrs. Weasley's ministrations, George's wound was neat and clean, but Harry was not yet used to the dark hole in the side of his head, despite the twins' many jokes about it.**

Molly groaned a little again at the reminder.

**Hermione made purple and gold streamers erupt from the end of her wand and drape themselves artistically over the trees and bushes.**

**"Nice," said Ron, as with one final flourish of her wand, Hermione turned the leaves on the crabapple tree to gold. "You've really got an eye for that sort of thing."**

**"Thank you, Ron!" said Hermione, looking both pleased and a little confused. Harry turned away, smiling to himself. He had a funny notion that he would find a chapter on compliments when he found time to peruse his copy of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches; **

A few chuckles were heard around the room

**he caught Ginny's eye and grinned at her before remembering his promise to Ron and hurriedly striking up a conversation with Monsieur Delacour.**

**"Out of the way, out of the way!" sang Mrs. Weasley, coming through the gate with what appeared to be a giant, beach-ball-sized Snitch floating in front of her. Seconds later Harry realized that it was his birthday cake, which Mrs. Weasley was suspending with her wand, rather than risk carrying it over the uneven ground. When the cake had finally landed in the middle of the table, Harry said, "That looks amazing, Mrs. Weasley."**

"He's a seeker." James said proudly. His son was good at Quidditch and he was a seeker. Many nodded to him, just to keep him happy.

**"Oh, it's nothing, dear," she said fondly. Over her shoulder, Ron gave Harry the thumbs-up and mouthed, Good one.**

**By seven o'clock all the guests had arrived, led into the house by Fred and George, who had waited for them at the end of the lane. Hagrid had honored the occasion by wearing his best, and horrible, hairy brown suit. Although Lupin smiled as he shook Harry's hand, Harry thought he looked rather unhappy. It was all very odd; Tonks, beside him, looked simply radiant.**

"Why would I be unhappy?" Remus asked confused. No one answered.

**"Happy birthday, Harry," she said, hugging him tightly.**

**"Seventeen, eh!" said Hagrid as he accepted a bucket-sized glass of wine from Fred. "Six years ter the day since we met, Harry, d'yeh remember it?"**

**"Vaguely," said Harry, grinning up at him. "Didn't you smash down the front door, give Dudley a pig's tail, and tell me I was a wizard?"**

Everyone laughed at that. So typical.

**"I forge' the details," Hagrid chortled. "All righ', Ron, Hermione?"**

**"We're fine," said Hermione. "How are you?"**

**"Ar, not bad. Bin busy, we got some newborn unicorns. I'll show yeh when yeh get back -" Harry avoided Ron's and Hermione's gazes as Hagrid rummaged in his pocket. "Here. Harry - couldn't think what ter get teh, but then I remembered this." He pulled out a small, slightly furry drawstring pouch with a long string, evidently intended to be worn around the neck. "Mokeskin. Hide anythin' in there an' no one but the owner can get it out. They're rare, them."**

"Wow… That's so cool" most people in the group said. That sounded like it would do some good.

**"Hagrid, thanks!"**

**"'S'nothin'," said Hagrid with a wave of a dustbin-lid-sized hand. "An' there's Charlie! Always liked him - hey! Charlie!"**

"That's my second oldest." Molly announced proudly.

**Charlie approached, running his hand slightly ruefully over his new, brutally short haircut. He was shorter than Ron, thickset, with a number of burns and scratches up his muscled arms.**

"Why?" Molly said, now becoming concerned .

**"Hi, Hagrid, how's it going?"**

**"Bin meanin' ter write fer ages. How's Norbert doin'?"**

"Who's Norbert?"

**"Norbert?" Charlie laughed. "The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now."**

"What?" Molly said faintly eyes wide open. "Why would my son be with Dragons." She was in shock but most others looked impressed.

**"Wha - Norbert's a girl?"**

**"Oh yeah," said Charlie.**

**"How can you tell?" asked Hermione**

**"They're a lot more vicious," said Charlie. He looked over his shoulder and dropped his voice. "Wish Dad would hurry up and get here. Mum's getting edgy."**

**They all looked over at Mrs. Weasley. She was trying to talk to Madame Delacour while glancing repeatedly at the gate.**

"This sounds so intense" James couldn't help but say

**"I think we'd better start without Arthur," she called to the garden at large after a moment or two. "He must have been held up at - oh!"**

**They all saw it at the same time: a streak of light that came flying across the yard and onto the table, where it resolved itself into a bright silver weasel, which stood on its hind legs and spoke with Mr. Weasley's voice.**

"Patronous"

**"Minister of Magic coming with me."**

Everyone looked at each other. Why would the Minister be coming? What did he want?

**The Patronus dissolved into thin air, leaving Fleur's family peering in astonishment at the place where it had vanished.**

**"We shouldn't be here," said Lupin at once. "Harry - I'm sorry - I'll explain some other time -"**

Lupin's brows went together "What was that about?" No one answered. Remus wished he was still their for Harry _He needs one of us _they all thought.

**He seized Tonks's wrist and pulled her away; they reached the fence, climbed over it, and vanished from sight. Mrs. Weasley looked bewildered.**

**"The Minister - but why -? I don't understand -"**

"That's what we want to know."

**But there was no time to discuss the matter; a second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.**

**The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light. Harry saw that he looked much older than the last time that had met, scraggy and grim.**

"The war will do that to a person in charge" Dumbledore started clearly.

**"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate-crashing a party."**

**His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake.**

**"Many happy returns."**

**"Thanks," said Harry.**

**"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."**

"What?" everyone asked around the table deeply confused.

**"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"**

"See, even he's surprised."

Lily answered "No, he's surpised that him and Hermione got invited"

**"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?" he demanded of Mr. Weasley.**

Molly huffed "That's not nice"

**"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"**

**"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur."**

"What he heck does he want?" a few asked. Now looking worried.

**Harry saw Mr. Weasley exchange a worried look with Mrs. Weasley as he, Ron, and Hermione stood up. As they led the way back to the house in silence, Harry knew that the other two were thinking the same as he was; Scrimgeour must, somehow, had learned that the three of them were planning to drop out of Hogwarts.**

"I somehow don't think that's it" McGonagall added

**Scrimgeour did not speak as they all passed through the messed kitchen and into the Burrow's sitting room. Although the garden had been full of soft golden evening light, it was already dark in here; Harry flicked his wand at the oil lamps as he entered and they illuminated the shabby but cozy room. Scrimgeour sat himself in the sagging armchair that Mr. Weasley normally occupied, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to squeeze side by side onto the sofa. Once they had done so, Scrimgeour spoke.**

**"I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you two"- he pointed at Harry and Hermione - "can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald."**

**"We're not going anywhere," said Harry, while Hermione nodded vigorously. "You can speak to us together, or not at all."**

"Did he just back chat the Minister." Sirius said looking slightly shocked and awed.

**Scrimgeour gave Harry a cold, appraising look. Harry had the impression that the Minister was wondering whether it was worthwhile opening hostilities this early.**

Lily started massaging her temple "Sounds like he have history" everyone nodded. That made sense.

**"Very well then, together," he said, shrugging. He cleared his throat. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."**

"Oh" everyone said, is was clear now.

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another.**

**"A surprise, apparently! You were not aware then that Dumbledore had left you anything?"**

**"A-all of us?" said Ron, "Me and Hermione too?"**

"Not the best thing to say." Everyone agreed, they should have went along with it.

**"Yes, all of -"**

**But Harry interrupted.**

**"Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?"**

"Good point." Dumbledore shook his head. They wanted to make sure he never gave away, anything they could use.

**"Isn't it obvious?" said Hermione, before Scrimgeour could answer. "They wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!" she said, and her voice trembled slightly.**

**"I had every right," said Scrimgeour dismissively. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power the confiscate the contents of a will -"**

**"That law was created to stop wizards passing on Dark artifacts," said Hermione, "and the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?"**

"Thank you Miss Granger" Dumbledore announced then continued

**"Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.**

**"No, I'm not," retorted Hermione. "I'm hoping to do some good in the world!"**

Everyone laughed. "I guess none of them like the Minister."

**Ron laughed. Scrimgeour's eyes flickered toward him and away again as Harry spoke.**

**"So why have you decided to let us have our things now? Can't think of a pretext to keep them?"**

**"No, it'll be because thirty-one days are up," said Hermione at once. "They can't keep the objects longer than that unless they can prove they're dangerous. Right?"**

"She smart" Remus resorted impressed. Most rolled their eyes

**"Would you say you were close to Dumbledore, Ronald?" asked Scrimgeour, ignoring Hermione. Ron looked startled.**

**"Me? Not - not really... It was always Harry who..."**

"Shut up Ron, you're just making it worse" snarled Sirius. Seriously did the boy have a brain. Moody was shaking his head at Ron's stupidity.

**Ron looked around at Harry and Hermione, to see Hermione giving him a stop-talking-now! sort of look, but the damage was done; Scrimgeour looked as though he had heard exactly what he had expected, and wanted, to hear. He swooped like a bird of prey upon Ron's answer.**

Moody grunted "Of course he did."

**"If you were not very close to Dumbledore, how do you account for the fact that he remembered you in his will? He made exceptionally few personal bequests. The vast majority of his possessions - his private library, his magical instruments, and other personal effects - were left to Hogwarts. Why do you think you were singled out?"**

"Because they are special" Lily said with a smile.

**"I...dunno," said Ron. "I...when I say we weren't close...I mean, I think he liked me..."**

**"You're being modest, Ron," said Hermione. "Dumbledore was very fond of you."**

"Thank Merlin, she's there."

**This was stretching the truth to breaking point; as far as Harry knew, Ron and Dumbledore had never been alone together, and direct contact between them had been negligible. **

Albus looked thoughtful "Hm" he muttered then shook his head and went back to reading.

**However, Scrimgeour did not seem to be listening. He put his hand inside his cloak and drew out a drawstring pouch much larger than the one Hagrid had given Harry. From it, he removed a scroll of parchment which he unrolled and read aloud.**

**"'The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore'... Yes, here we are... 'To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it.'"**

Dumbledore looked impressed "Wow" he smiled. _Now why did I give him that?_ He thought.

**Scrimgeour took from the bag an object that Harry had seen before: It looked something like a silver cigarette lighter, but it had, he knew, the power to suck all light from a place, and restore it, with a simple click. Scrimgeour leaned forward and passed the Deluminator to Ron, who took it and turned it over in the fingers looking stunned.**

A lot of people were looking stunned too. Dumbledore always had that with him.

**"That is a valuable object," said Scrimgeour, watching Ron. "It may even be unique. Certainly it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you and item so rare?"**

"Yes, I'm wondering that too" Dumbledore told the table cheerfully.

**Ron shook his head, looking bewildered.**

**"Dumbledore must have taught thousands of students," Scrimgeour persevered. "Yet the only ones he remembered in his will are you three. Why is that? To what use did he think you would put to the Deluminator, Mr. Weasley?"**

**"Put out lights, I s'pose," mumbled Ron. "What else could I do with it?"**

A few people snorted.

**Evidently Scrimgeour had no suggestions. After squinting at Ron for a moment or two, he turned back to Dumbledore's will.**

**"'To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive.'"**

Everyone was looking completely out of it "Really?" most muttered sounding disappointed. Some looked thoughtful, how would a children's story be of any use.

**Scrimgeour now pulled out of the bag a small book that looked as ancient as the copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art upstairs. Its binding was stained and peeling in places. Hermione took it from Scrimgeour without a word. She held the book in her lap and gazed at it. Harry saw that the title was in runes; he had never learned to read them. As he looked, a tear splashed onto the embossed symbols.**

Lily and Molly cooed sadly.

**"Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.**

**"He... he knew I liked books," said Hermione in a thick voice, mopping her eyes with her sleeve.**

Albus chuckled "It most likely will be more than that"

**"But why that particular book?"**

**"I don't know. He must have thought I'd enjoy it."**

Sirius was enjoying this backchat very much.

**"Did you ever discuss codes, or any means of passing secret messages, with Dumbledore?"**

**"No, I didn't," said Hermione, still wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "And if the Ministry hasn't found any hidden codes in this book in thirty-one days, I doubt that I will."**

**She suppressed a sob. They were wedged together so tightly that Ron had difficulty extracting his arm to put it around Hermione's shoulders. Scrimgeour turned back to the will.**

**"'To Harry James Potter,'" he read, and Harry's insides contracted with a sudden excitement, "'I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill.'"**

"What?" most looked confused. But Albus, Remus and Lily were wondering if it had anything to do with flesh memorys.

**As Scrimgeour pulled out the tiny, walnut-sized golden ball, its silver wings fluttered rather feebly, and Harry could not help feeling a definite sense of anticlimax.**

**"Why did Dumbledore leave you this Snitch?" asked Scrimgeour.**

**"No idea," said Harry. "For the reasons you just read out, I suppose... to remind me what you can get if you... persevere and whatever it was."**

"That's my boy" James said quietly but proudly.

**"You think this a mere symbolic keepsake, then?"**

**"I suppose so," said Harry. "What else could it be?"**

**"I'm asking the questions," said Scrimgeour, shifting his chair a little closer to the sofa. Dusk was really falling outside now; the marquee beyond the windows towered ghostly white over the hedge.**

**"I notice that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch," Scrimgeour said to Harry. "Why is that?"**

Most shook their heads _Really, is he that stupid._

**Hermione laughed derisively.**

**"Oh, it can't be a reference to the fact Harry's a great Seeker, that's way too obvious," she said. "There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!"**

Everyone just had to laugh at that but James had a different idea. He looked ready to jump out his seat "Did you hear that?" He asked them with a grin that looked like it was ready to split his face. "Great seeker, that's what she said, did you hear her?" Most of them shook their heads with a fond smile.

**"I don't think there's anything hidden in the icing," said Scrimgeour, "but a Snitch would be a very good hiding place for a small object. You know why, I'm sure?"**

**Harry shrugged, Hermione, however, answered: Harry thought that answering questions correctly was such a deeply ingrained habit she could not suppress the urge.**

Everyone other than Lily and Remus laughed. They felt like that too.

**"Because Snitches have flesh memories," she said.**

"Really?" mostly everyone in the room asked surprised.

**"What?" said Harry and Ron together; both considered Hermione's Quidditch knowledge negligible.**

**"Correct," said Scrimgeour. "A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released, not even by the maker, who wears gloves. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in case of a disputed capture. This Snitch" - he held up the tiny golden ball - "will remember your touch, Potter.**

"Oh no," McGonagall said "If you did leave something, the Minister will see it." A few people looked a little worried now

**It occurs to me that Dumbledore, who had prodigious magical skill, whatever his other faults, might have enchanted this Snitch so that it will open only for you."**

**Harry's heart was beating rather fast. He was sure that Scrimgeour was right. How could he avoid taking the Snitch with his bare hand in front of the Minister?**

"You can't" Remus, Dumbledore and Lily all said together. Then Remus and Lily blushed but Dumbledore just chuckled lightly

**"You don't say anything," said Scrimgeour. "Perhaps you already know what the Snitch contains?"**

**"No," said Harry, still wondering how he could appear to touch the Snitch without really doing so. If only he knew Legilimency, really knew it, and could read Hermione's mind; he could practically hear her brain whizzing beside him.**

A few chuckled at the image

**"Take it," said Scrimgeour quietly.**

**Harry met the Minister's yellow eyes and knew he had no option but to obey. He held out his hand, and Scrimgeour leaned forward again and place the Snitch, slowly and deliberately, into Harry's palm.**

**Nothing happened. As Harry's fingers closed around the Snitch, its tired wings fluttered and were still. Scrimgeour, Ron, and Hermione continued to gaze avidly at the now partially concealed ball, as if still hoping it might transform in some way.**

**"That was dramatic," said Harry coolly. Both Ron and Hermione laughed.**

Everyone laughed and let out a breathe of relief but also a breathe of disappointment.

**"That's all, then, is it?" asked Hermione, making to raise herself off the sofa.**

**"Not quite," said Scrimgeour, who looked bad tempered now. "Dumbledore left you a second bequest, Potter."**

"It's not going the way he wants it." Lily added with a slight smile.

"Harry also gets something else." James mentioned excited.

**"What is it?" asked Harry, excitement rekindling.**

**Scrimgeour did not bother to read from the will this time.**

**"The sword of Godric Gryffindor," he said. **

The whole room's eyes went wide. Everyone was thinking the same. _WOW! _Slight smiles played on the side of their mouth and their eyes full with awe.

**Hermione and Ron both stiffened. Harry looked around for a sign of the ruby-encrusted hilt, but Scrimgeour did not pull the sword from the leather pouch, which in any case looked much too small to contain it.**

**"So where is it?" Harry asked suspiciously.**

**"Unfortunately," said Scrimgeour, "that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artifact, and as such, belongs -"**

**"It belongs to Harry!" said Hermione hotly. "It chose him, he was the one who found it, it came to him out of the Sorting Hat -"**

Everyones eye's got wider again. That was just – they didn't even know what to say – it was just – wow.

**"According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor," said Scrimgeour. "That does not make it the exclusive property of Mr. Potter, whatever Dumbledore may have decided." Scrimgeour scratched his badly shaven cheek, scrutinizing Harry. "Why do you think -?"**

**"- Dumbledore wanted to give me the sword?" said Harry, struggling to keep his temper. "Maybe he thought it would look nice on my wall."**

Everyone laughed again at his humor but none more than Sirius. He really loved his Godson.

**"This is not a joke, Potter!" growled Scrimgeour. "Was it because Dumbledore believed that only the sword of Godric Gryffindor could defeat the Heir of Slytherin? Did he wish to give you that sword, Potter, because he believed, as do many, that you are the one destined to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"**

**"Interesting theory," said Harry. "Has anyone ever tried sticking a sword in Voldemort? **

"No, they'd die before they got a chance" a few muttered but had smiles, at the fact Harry said that.

**Maybe the Ministry should put some people onto that, instead of wasting their time stripping down Deluminators or covering up breakouts from Azkaban. So this is what you've been doing, Minister, shut up in your office, trying to break open a Snitch? People are dying - I was nearly one of them - Voldemort chased me across three countries, he killed Mad-Eye Moody, but there's no word about any of that from the Ministry, has there? And you still expect us to cooperate with you!"**

"Wow, what a speech." James said

"Three countries, really?" Lily sighed shaking her head. She just didn't know what to say.

**"You go too far!" shouted Scrimgeour, standing up: Harry jumped to his feet too. Scrimgeour limped toward Harry and jabbed him hard in the chest with the point of his wand; It singed a hole in Harry's T-shirt like a lit cigarette.**

"Hey!" nearly everyone in the room yelled.

**"Oi!" said Ron, jumping up and raising his own wand, but Harry said, "No! D'you want to give him an excuse to arrest us?"**

"Yeah, Harry don't let them" Lily said but she was ruming.

**"Remembered you're not at school, have you?" said Scrimgeour breathing hard into Harry's face. "Remembered that I am not Dumbledore, who forgave your insolence and insubordination? You may wear that scar like a crown, Potter, but it is not up to a seventeen-year-old boy to tell me how to do my job! It's time you learned some respect!"**

**"It's time you earned it." said Harry.**

Everyone clapped and wooped at that remark.

**The floor trembled; there was a sound of running footsteps, then the door to the sitting room burst open and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran in.**

**"We - we thought we heard -" began Mr. Weasley, looking thoroughly alarmed at the sight of Harry and the Minister virtually nose to nose.**

Arther and Molly laughed, they could imagine that sight and how they would feel

**"- raised voices," panted Mrs. Weasley.**

**Scrimgeour took a couple of steps back from Harry, glancing at the hole he had made in Harry's T-shirt. He seemed to regret his loss of temper.**

**"It - it was nothing," he growled. "I ... regret your attitude," he said, looking Harry full in the face once more. "You seem to think that the Ministry does not desire what you - what Dumbledore - desired. We ought to work together."**

**"I don't like your methods, Minister," said Harry. "Remember?"**

**For the second time, he raised his right fist and displayed to Scrimgeour the scar that still showed white on the back of it, spelling I must not tell lies . Scrimgeour's expression hardened. **

"So it was someone at the Ministry" Lily yelled fuming. "Some government" she muttered under her breath. Everyone else looked like they were about to expode too.

**He turned away without another word and limped from the room. Mrs. Weasley hurried after him; Harry heard her stop at the back door. After a minute or so she called, "He's gone!"**

**"What did he want?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking around at Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Mrs. Weasley came hurrying back to them.**

**"To give us what Dumbledore left us," said Harry. "They've only just released the content of his will."**

**Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third of fourth time, Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... Shall I serve dinner now?"**

**They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighboring field.**

**"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Hermione, while they helped Mrs. Weasley restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed."**

"They only just think of that" Sirius explained impatiently.

**Up in the attic room, Ron examined his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's moleskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were the Marauder's Map, the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror, and R.A.B.'s locket. **

Some smiled. "Even though it's broke, he want to keep it, just because Sirius gave it too him" Lily smiled sadly. Everyone smiled back.

**He pulled the string tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly. At last, Hermione tapped on the door and tiptoed inside.**

**"Muffiato," she whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs.**

Lily gasped, and everyone looked at her "That's one of Severus's spells? He invented that? How had she known that?" No one knew but it made them curious

**"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" said Ron.**

**"Times change," said Hermione. "Now, show us that Deluminator."**

**Ron obliged at once. Holding I up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.**

**"The thing is," whispered Hermione through the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."**

**There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.**

**"Still, it's cool," said Ron, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"**

"Yeah, that is cool" Sirius called a little defensively too.

**"I know but, surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!"**

**"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.**

**"Definitely," said Hermione. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that will doesn't explain..."**

**"... why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.**

"Well you didn't expect to die just yet" Sirius said but everyone ignored him

**"Well, exactly," said Hermione, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have left us know why... unless he thought it was obvious?"**

**"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. **

Everyone laughed "Yeah, he's got that right" Aberforth couldn't help but grunt

**Leaving Harry an old Snitch - what the hell was that about?"**

**"I've no idea," said Hermione. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"**

"So were we."

**"Yeah, well," said Harry, his pulse quickened as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour was I?"**

Everyone looked excited "What does he know"

**"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.**

**"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" said Harry. "Don't you remember?"**

**Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.**

"What is it?" James nearly yelled impatiently.

**"That was the one you nearly swallowed!"**

"He what" Sirius yelled excitedly. Everyone was dazed.

**"Exactly," said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.**

**It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him: He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out.**

"What?" a few people asked now, paying the book their complete attention

**"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" He nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise and excitement. Hermione was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanted handwriting that Harry recognized as Dumbledore's**

**I open at the close.**

"What?" now everyone was confused again. Everyone looked frustrated with their mood swings.

**He had barely read them when the words vanished again.**

**"I open at the close... What's that supposed to mean?"**

**Hermione and Ron shook their heads, looking blank.**

**"I open at the close... at the close... I open at the close..."**

**But no matter how often they repeated the words, with many different inflections, they were unable to wring any more meaning from them.**

"Well, that's not helpful." Huffed Molly.

**"And the sword," said Ron finally, when they had at last abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the Snitch's inscription.**

**"Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"**

**"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry said quietly. "I was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"**

"Talks?" Arther said "It sounds like you had a lot of them" Albus nodded.

**He felt as thought he were sitting in an examination with a question he ought to have been able to answer in front of him, his brain slow and unresponsive. Was there something he had missed in the long talks with Dumbledore last year? Ought he to know what it all meant? Had Dumbledore expected him to understand?**

**"And as for this book." Said Hermione, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard ... I've never even heard of them!"**

"You must be joking? James said shocked.

**"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"**

**"No, I'm not," said Hermione in surprise. "Do you know them then?"**

**"Well, of course I do!"**

Molly and Arther nodded, they read them to all their children.

**Harry looked up, diverted. The circumstance of Ron having read a book that Hermione had not was unprecedented. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise.**

Most laughed at this.

**"Oh come on! All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' ... 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'... 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'..."**

**"Excuse me?" said Hermione giggling. "What was the last one?"**

Lily giggled "Yes, that's what I said when James told me."

**"Come off it!" said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty -"**

**"Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and 'Cinderella' -"**

James and Lily sighed, at the thought they didn't raise Harry.

**"What's that, an illness?" asked Ron.**

Lily couldn't help but giggle a little.

**"So these are children's stories?" asked Hermione, bending against over the runes.**

**"Yeah." Said Ron uncertainly. "I mean, just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I dunno what they're like in the original versions."**

**"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?"**

**Something cracked downstairs.**

**"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," said Ron nervously.**

Molly shook her head.

**"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow."**

**"No," agreed Ron. "A brutal triple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of damper on the wedding. I'll get the light."**

Everyone chuckled when Molly said "At least they know how I am"

**And he clicked the Deluminator once more as Hermione left the room.**

"Well, that was a better chapter than most." Molly said "I will be the wedding soon"


	12. The Wedding

"Well, that was a better chapter than most." Molly said "I will be the wedding soon"

Dumbledore turned the page and read a bit, then turned to Molly. "Yes, that is soon, very soon indeed." She beamed at him and looked at Arther excitedly and he grinned.

Albus cleared his throat "well I guess I'll begin then, Chapter eight"

**Three o'clock on the following afternoon found Harry, Ron, Fred and George standing outside the great white marquee in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests.**

Molly could not contain her excitement, she was currently patting her lap happily.

** Harry had taken a large dose of Polyjuice Potion and was now the double of a redheaded Muggle boy from the local village, Ottery St. Catchpole, from whom Fred had stolen hairs using a Summoning Charm. The plan was to introduce Harry as "Cousin Barny" and trust to the great number of Weasley relatives to camouflage him.**

"That's clever" Moody told the group.

**All four of them were clutching seating plans, so that they could help show people to the right seats. A host of white-robed waiters had arrived an hour earlier, along with a golden jacketed band, and all of these wizards were currently sitting a short distance away under a tree. Harry could see a blue haze of pipe smoke issuing from the spot. Behind Harry, the entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet. The supporting poles were entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife. **

Molly was beaming at her husband "Doesn't that sound beautiful Arther"

Arther chuckled at his wife's excitement "Yes dear, it does."

**Outside, butterflies and bees were hovering lazily over the grass and hedgerow. Harry was rather uncomfortable. The Muggle boy whose appearance he was affecting was slightly fatter than him and his dress robes felt hot and tight in the full glare of a summer's day.**

**"When I get married," said Fred, tugging at the collar of his own robes, "I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body Bird Curse on Mum until it's all over."**

A few chuckled "I think she'd break the binds" Molly nodded, she'd at least try.

**"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," said George. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him. Oh blimey, brace yourselves, here they come, look."**

"What? Why isn't Percy there?" Molly asked a little more alert. Everyone looked confused. But when they thought about it Percy hadn't been mentioned. Where was he? Why was he not there?

**Brightly colored figures were appearing, one by one out of nowhere at the distant boundary of the yard. Within minutes a procession had formed, which began to snake its way up through the garden toward the marquee. Exotic flowers and bewitched birds fluttered on the witches' hats, while precious gems glittered from many of the wizards' cravats; a hum of excited chatter grew louder and louder, drowning the sound of the bees as the crowd approached the tent.**

"Oh, that sounds completely perfect for my baby boys wedding" she said as if she was in a dream

Arther chuckled again at his wife "Molly dear, he's not a baby in this anymore."

**"Excellent, I think I see a few veela cousins," said George, craning his neck for a better look. "They'll need help understanding our English customs, I'll look after them..."**

All the men chuckled, so typical. "Yes, look after them" Sirius said with a wink.

**"Not so fast, Your Holeyness," said Fred, and darting past the gaggle of middle-aged witches heading for the procession, he said, "Here - permetiez moi to assister vous," to a pair of pretty French girls, who giggled and allowed him to escort them inside. **

"He knows French?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow. Fred didn't sound like the type of person to speak different languages.

"I think having a soon-to-be French sister would have something to do with it Padfoot" James chuckled. He nodded back. _Yeah that makes more sense._

**George was left to deal with the middle-aged witches and Ron took charge of Mr. Weasley's old Ministry-colleague Perkins, while a rather deaf old couple fell to Harry's lot.**

A lot of people smiled at Harry's misfortune.

**"Wotcher," said a familiar voice as he came out of the marquee again and found Tonks and Lupin at the front of the queue. She had turned blonde for the occasion. "Arthur told us you were the one with the curly hair. Sorry about last night," she added in a whisper as Harry led them up the aisle. "The Ministry's being very anti-werewolf at the museum and we thought our presence might not do you any favors."**

Everyone turned to Remus and nodded, but only to notice he was pale. They shook their heads, they knew what he was thinking.

**"It's fine, I understand," said Harry, speaking more to Lupin than Tonks. Lupin gave him a swift smile, but as they turned away Harry saw Lupin's face fall again into lines of misery. **

Remus's eyes narrowed suspiciously. But he had a feeling it was something to do with making Tonk's live a miserable life.

Sirius and James shared a look, and then rounded on Remus "Moony" he turned to them but didn't look them in the eye. "If Dora knows, and she's still with you, then she must love you" Sirius couldn't help but smirk "It's so weird to think about it, but if that's what happens, then so be it. You deserve it Moony" He nodded but everyone knew he didn't believe it.

**He did not understand it, but there was no time to dwell on the matter. Hagrid was causing a certain amount of disruption. Having misunderstood Fred's directions as he had sat himself, not upon the magically enlarged and reinforced seat set aside for him in the back row, but on five sets that now resembled a large pile of golden matchsticks.**

**While Mr. Weasley repaired the damage and Hagrid shouted apologies to anybody who would listen, Harry hurried back to the entrance to find Ron face-to-face with a most eccentric-looking wizard. Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.**

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. It couldn't be, could it? It couldn't be the thing he was trying all his life to get away from. He shook his head when he got suspicion looks, since he had stopped reading, he continued

**"Xenophilius Lovegood," he said, extending a hand to Harry, "my daughter and I live just over the hill, so kind of the good Weasleys to invite us. But I think you know my Luna?" he added to Ron.**

**"Yes," said Ron. "Isn't she with you?"**

"Luna? Who's Luna? I haven't heard her get mentioned, have you?" Alice asked Frank, who nodded.

**"She lingered in that charming little garden to say hello to the gnomes, such a glorious infestation! How few wizards realize just how much we can learn from the wise little gnomes - or, to give them their correct name, the Gernumbli gardensi."**

Lily groaned, she remember who this person was, totally out of his head, this one. Made up everything.

**"Ours do know a lot of excellent swear words," said Ron, "but I think Fred and George taught them those."**

Arther chuckled but Molly had other idea's "Fred, George." She scolded as if they were right in front of her.

**He led a party of warlocks into the marquee as Luna rushed up.**

**"Hello, Harry!" she said.**

"Uh … isn't he under Polyjuice Potion?" James asked confused. Everyone nodded they thought so too.

**"Er - my name's Barry," said Harry, flummoxed.**

"See" James said completely baffled, everyone just shrugged, not understand either.

**"Oh, have you changed that too?" she asked brightly.**

**"How did you know -?"**

**"Oh, just your expression," she said.**

"Uh" James said, not sure what to say about that. Most people just looked put out, that she knew his expression.

"They must be close then" Observed Lily. Most just nodded in reply.

**Like her father, Luna was wearing bright yellow robes, which she had accessorized with a large sunflower in her hair. Once you get over the brightness of it all, the general effect was quite pleasant. At least there were no radishes dangling from her ears.**

A few men and Lily snorted at the girl's appearance.

**Xenophilius, who was deep in conversation with an acquaintance, had missed the exchange between Luna and Harry. Biding the wizard farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, "Daddy, look - one of the gnomes actually bit me."**

**"How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial." Said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna's outstretched fingers and examining the bleeding puncture marks. "Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today - perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaims in Mermish - do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!"**

A lot of people just looked at the book with raised eyebrows "I'm not even going to comment on that" Sirius decided, a lot of people looked the same.

**Ron, passing them in the opposite direction let out a loud snort.**

See, he think's the same."

**"Ron can laugh," said Luna serenely as Harry led her and Xenophilius toward their seats, "but my father has done a lot of research on Gernumbli magic."**

Lily sighed "No honey, I don't think he has." She rolled her eyes and thought _Seriously? How can people not look at facts_

**"Really?" said Harry, who had long since decided not to challenge Luna or her father's peculiar views. "Are you sure you don't want to put anything on that bite, though?"**

"Oh, so that's normal" James assumed but he still didn't think this girl was right in the head, or her father. Everyone thought it would be a bit difficult to listen to people talk like that all the time.

**"Oh, it's fine," said Luna, sucking her finger in a dreamy fashion and looking Harry up and down. "You look smart. I told Daddy most people would probably wear dress robes, but he believes you ought to wear sun colors to a wedding, for luck, you know."**

**As she drifted off after her father, Ron reappeared with an elderly witch clutching his arm. Her beaky nose, red-rimmed eyes, and leathery pink hat gave her the look of a bad-tempered flamingo.**

Arther paled at this mention "Uh-oh" he mumbled, everyone looked at him and he told them to just read.

**"...and your hair's much too long, Ronald, for a moment I thought you were Ginevra. Merlin's beard, what is Xenophilius Lovegood wearing? He looks like an omelet. And who are you?" she barked at Harry.**

Everyone laughed at what she said about Xenophilius, "Who is she?" Sirius thought out load.

Arther shook his head "The aunt from hell." And everyone looked uneasy.

**"Oh yeah, Auntie Muriel, this is our cousin Barny."**

**"Another Weasley? You breed like gnomes. Isn't Harry Potter here? I was hoping to meet him. I thought he was a friend of yours, Ronald, or have you merely been boasting?"**

"You breed like gnomes?" Sirius gasped. Arther shook his head but his mouth twitched "And what does she want with Harry?" he asked a little more seriously but still smiling slightly.

**"No - he couldn't come -"**

**"Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then. I've just been instructing the bride on how best to wear my tiara," she shouted at Harry. "Goblin-made, you know, and been in my family for centuries. She's a good-looking girl, but still - French. Well, well, find me a good seat, Ronald, I am a hundred and seven and I ought not to be on my feet too long."**

"She sounds pleasant" James said, and Arther sighed, he had never liked her.

"I know, doesn't she" Molly remarked before Arther could talk. She had never liked Muriel either.

**Ron gave Harry a meaningful look as he passed and did not reappear for some time. When next they met at the entrance, Harry had shown a dozen more people to their places. The Marquee was nearly full now and for the first time there was no queue outside.**

**"Nightmare, Muriel is," said Ron, mopping his forehead on his sleeve. "She used to come for Christmas every year, then, thank God, she took offense because Fred and George set off a Dungbomb under her chair at diner. **

"Good boys, good" Sirius laughed, he really did love these twins, he could wait to meet them when they grow up a bit.

**Dad always says she'll have written them out of her will - like they care, they're going to end up richer than anyone in the family, rate they're going... Wow," he added, blinking rather rapidly as Hermione came hurrying toward them. "You look great!"**

"Why would they end up richer than anyone in the family?" Molly asked puzzled.

Arther thought it through "Maybe they got a good job?" Most nodded thinking that was the most likely case.

**"Always the tone of surprise," said Hermione, though she smiled. She was wearing a floaty, lilac-colored dress with matching high heels; her hair was sleek and shiny. "Your Great-Aunt Muriel doesn't agree, I just met her upstairs while she was giving Fleur the tiara. She said, 'Oh dear, is this the Muggle-born?' and then, 'Bad posture and skinny ankles.'"**

"Yes, she doesn't hold back." Arther told everyone while they looked a little shocked someone said that to Hermione

**"Don't take it personally, she's rude to everyone," said Ron.**

Arther smiled "Exactly my point Ron."

**"Talking about Muriel?" inquired George, reemerging from the marquee with Fred. "Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."**

"Everyone started laughing at the comment about George's ears being lopsided, but then noticed Molly and Arther wasn't laughing but looked rather sad. "That mean's my brothers dies" Arther told the group and they all bit their lip and looked sympathetic, but you could tell Sirius was still dying to laugh at her comment about the ears.

**"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" asked Hermione.**

Arther sighed, he should spend more time with his brother. Molly patted his arm "It's okay, I know how it feels" and she did know how it feels to lose a brother, even two.

**"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end," conceded George.**

**"But before he went loopy he was the life and soul of the party," said Fred. "He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his -"**

Sirius couldn't help it, he just had to laugh at that. A few chuckled and giggles were heard around the room too. Arther smiled at the thought of his brother doing that.

**"Yes, he sounds a real charmer," said Hermione, while Harry roared with laughter.**

**"Never married, for some reason," said Ron.**

**"You amaze me," said Hermione.**

"Me too" Lily smiled

**They were all laughing so much that none of them noticed the latecomer, a dark-haired young man with a large, curved nose and thick black eyebrows, until he held out his invitation to Ron and said, with his eyes on Hermione, "You look vunderful."**

"Oh" Sirius grinned "Who's this I wonder, he never went to Hogwarts, if he has that accent, but it sounds like he knows Hermione, but she's muggle-born?" Everyone shrugged.

**"Viktor!" she shrieked, and dropped her small beaded bag, which made a loud thump quite disproportionate to its size. As she scrambled, blushing, to pick it up, she said "I didn't know you were - goodness - it's lovely to see - how are you?"**

"Well, apparently his names Viktor" he said to Sirius who shouldered him gently

**Ron's ears had turned bright red again. After glancing at Krum's invitation as if he did not believe a word of it, he said, much too loudly, "how come you're here?"**

"Oh" a lot of people muttered chuckled slightly. "Seems someone's jealous"

Molly smiled at this. _He must like Hermione _she thought, a little happy about this, from what they had read, she seemed like a nice girl.

**"Fleur invited me," said Krum, eyebrows raised.**

**Harry, who had no grudge against Krum, shook hands; then feeling that it would be prudent to remove Krum from Ron's vicinity, offered to show him his seat.**

James chuckled "Well done son." Knowing full well that could have ended up in a disaster.

**"Your friend is not pleased to see me," said Krum, as they entered the now packed marquee. "Or is he a relative?" he added with a glance at Harry's red curly hair.**

**"Cousin." Harry muttered, but Krum was not really listening. His appearance was causing a stir, particularly amongst the veela cousins: He was, after all, a famous Quidditch player. **

A few mouth dropped "He's a what?" James asked a little too excited. His son knew a famous Quidditch player. A few rolled their eyes but they were a little impressed. They could also see how Ron got so jealous.

**While people were still craning their necks to get a good look at him, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George came hurrying down the aisle.**

**"Time to sit down," Fred told Harry, "or we're going to get run over by the bride."**

**Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats in the second row behind Fred and George. Hermione looked rather pink and Ron's ears were still scarlet. After a few moments he muttered to Harry, "Did you see he's grown a stupid little beard?"**

Everyone burst out laughing. They didn't even know Ron apart from what they read, and from that, this was something they would expect him to say.

**Harry gave a noncommittal grunt.**

**A sense of jittery anticipation had filled the warm tent, the general murmuring broken by occasional spurts of excited laughter. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at relatives; Mrs. Weasley was wearing a brand-new set of amethyst colored robes with a matching hat.**

**A moment later Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, both wearing dress robes, with larger white roses in their buttonholes; Fred wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of giggling from the veela cousins. Then the crowd fell silent as music swelled from what seemed to be the golden balloons.**

Molly was beaming proudly. Everyone had fond smiles. It was nice to hear about something as nice as his.

**"Ooooh!" said Hermione, swiveling around in her seat to look at the entrance.**

**A great collective sigh issued from the assembled witches and wizards as Monsieur Delacour and Fleur came walking up the aisle, Fleur gliding, Monsieur Delacour bouncing and beaming. Fleur was wearing a very simple white dress and seemed to be emitting a strong, silvery glow. While her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison, today it beautified everybody it fell upon. Ginny and Gabrielle, both wearing golden dresses, looked even prettier than usual and once Fleur had reached for him, Bill did not look as though he had ever met Fenrit Greyback.**

Everyone froze, especially Remus, it was Greyback that turned him. Molly and Arther had their eyes wide in shock. "Wh-wha-wha-what?" she muttered weakly, it was hard to hear what she said. "What happened to my baby boy?" she said louder but her voice was shaking and she had a tear in her eyes. What had happened?

Remus's fisted were clenched. He hated Greyback. Greyback was a disgusting human being, no actually he wasn't really a human being, he really was a werewolf. He let that side take over completely. Remus didn't even want to think about how much worse he was now.

Arther looked pale. "Dumbledore, could you check the back please?" It seemed whenever there was a question they really wanted to know, a chapter would appear. So had near enough no doubt that there would be one now. Dumbledore nodded and told them he would read it after this one.

**"Ladies and gentlemen," said a slightly singsong voice, and with a slight shock, Harry saw the same small, tufty-hired wizard who had presided at Dumbledore's funeral, now standing in front of Bill and Fleur. "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls..."**

**"Yes, my tiara set off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut."**

**Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again. **

Everyone smiled at this.

**Harry's mind wandered a long way from the marquee, back to the afternoons spent alone with Ginny in lonely parts of the school grounds. They seemed so long ago; they had always seemed too good to be true, as though he had been stealing shining hours from a normal person's life, a person without a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead...**

Lily was sobbing, her poor baby boy didn't even think of himself as a normal person. Just a person with a scar that basically rules his whole life. Everyone was thinking along the same lines. _The poor boy doesn't deserve this _they all thought _but that's all he's ever known_ they added to themselves sadly.

**"Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle...?"**

**In the front row, Mrs. Weasley and Madame Delacour were both sobbing quietly into scraps of lace. Trumpetlike sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs. Hermione turned around and beamed at Harry; her eyes too were full of tears.**

Molly was sitting with tears in her eyes as well, no one knew if it was from the wedding or other reasons.

**"...then I declare you bonded for life."**

**The tufty-haired wizard waved his hand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As Fred and George led a round of applause, the golden balloons overhead burst. Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the din.**

A few smiled, it sounded so perfect.

**"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the tufty-haired wizard. "If you would please stand up!"**

**They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The scars on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside. Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth round it, and the golden-jacketed hand trooped toward a podium.**

Molly was grinning again. This was what she had always wanted for her boys. She decided she did like Fleur after all.

**"Smooth," said Ron approvingly as the waiters popped up on all sides, some hearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and firewhisky, others tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches.**

**"We should go and congratulate them!" said Hermione, standing on tiptoe to see the place where Bill and Fleur had vanished amid a crowd of well-wishers.**

**"We'll have time later," shrugged Ron, snatching three butterbeers from a passing tray and handing one to Harry. "Hermione, cop hold, let's grab a table... Not there! Nowhere near Muriel -"**

"Good move" Sirius said approvingly.

**Ron led the way across the empty dance floor, glancing left and right as he went; Harry felt sure that he was keeping an eye out for Krum. By the time they had reached the other side of the marquee, most of the tables were occupied: The emptiest was the one where Luna sat alone.**

**"All right if we join you?" asked Ron.**

**"Oh yes," she said happily. "Daddy's just gone to give Bill and Fleur our present."**

**"What is it, a lifetime's supply of Gurdyroots?" asked Ron.**

"Was he being serious or sarcastic?" James asked a little wary. He didn't know whether to laugh or not. When he looked at everyone, they looked around the same way.

**Hermione aimed a kick at him under the table, but caught Harry instead. Eyes watering in pain, Harry lost track of the conversation for a few moments.**

Sirius winced "Bad luck"

**The band had begun to play, Bill and Fleur took to the dance floor first, to great applause; after a while, Mr. Weasley led Madame Delacour onto the floor, followed by Mr. Weasley and Fleur's father.**

**"I like this song," said Luna, swaying in time to the waltzlike tune, and a few seconds later she stood up and glided onto the dance floor, where she revolved on the spot, quite alone, eyes closed and waving her arms.**

"That girl is so strange." Remus added

**"She's great isn't she?" said Ron admiringly. "Always good value."**

"Seems like they like her" Alice noted, she didn't mind if the girl was strange, she seemed nice, and a good friend.

**But the smile vanished from his face at once: Viktor Krum had dropped into Luna's vacant seat. Hermione looked pleasurably flustered but this time Krum had not come to compliment her. With a scowl on his face he said, "Who is that man in the yellow?"**

**"That's Xenophilius Lovegood, he's the father of a friend of ours," said Ron. His pugnacious tone indicated that they were not about to laugh at Xenophilius, despite the clear provocation. "Come and dance," he added abruptly to Hermione.**

"Smooth" Sirius and James laughed together. Everyone just had to agree.

**She looked taken aback, but pleased too, and got up. They vanished together into the growing throng on the dance floor.**

**"Ah, they are together now?" asked Krum, momentarily distracted.**

"So, I guess he likes Hermione" Lily smiled pointing out the obvious.

"You're smart and all, but I think if you just caught on that's a bit sad" Sirius revealed but was silenced with one of her glares.

**"Er - sort of," said Harry.**

Remus chuckled "good answer"

**"Who are you?" Krum asked.**

**"Barny Weasley."**

**They shook hands.**

**"You, Barny - you know this man Lovegood well?"**

**"No, I only met him today. Why?"**

**Krum glowered over the top of his drink, watching Xenophilius, who was chatting to several warlocks on the other side of the dance floor.**

A lot of people looked a little puzzled _Where's this going?_

**"Because," said Krum, "If he vus not a guest of Fleur's I vould dud him, here and now, for veering that filthy sign upon his chest."**

Dumbledore stopped for a moment, he didn't know what young Mr. Krum was talking about, but it didn't seem he was talking about the deathly hallows.

**"Sign?" said Harry, looking over at Xenophilius too. The strange triangular eye was gleaming on his chest. "Why? What's wrong with it?"**

**"Grindelvald. That is Grindelvald's sign."**

Dumbledore stiffened. _It's not Grindelwald's sign, but it was as well have been._ Aberforth noticed this brother looking rather uncomfortable and couldn't help but think that he deserved to talk about this, he caused so much damage by befriending him.

**"Grindelwald... the Dark wizard Dumbledore defeated?"**

Aberforth grunted. _Yes, defeated … if only they knew _He noticed he was getting a few looks so he turned back to his brother who looked at him as if he knew exactly what he was thinking, but then again, he most likely was.

**"Exactly."**

**Krum's jaw muscles worked as if he were chewing, then he said, "Grindelvald killed many people, my grandfather, for instance. Of course, he vos never powerful in this country, they said he feared Dumbledore - and rightly, seeing how he vos finished. **

"That's so not it" Aberforth mumbled quietly but some heard him, they wondered what he was talking about. Dumbledore heard his brother and took a deep breathe and began again, he would just have to suffer it.

**But this" - he pointed a finger at Xenophilius - "this is his symbol, I recognized it at vunce: Grindelvald carved it into a vall at Durmstrang ver he vos a pupil there. Some idiots copied it onto their books and clothes thinking to shock, make themselves impressive - until those of us who had lost family members to Grindelvald taught them better."**

**Krum cracked his knuckles menacingly and glowered at Xenophilius. Harry felt perplexed. It seemed incredibly unlikely that Luna's father was a supporter of the Dark Arts, and nobody else in the tent seemed to have recognized the triangular, finlike shape.**

"It's not his sign, sir, is it?" Lily reasoned

"No, Mrs. Potter, it's not _his _sign" Very few noticed how he said 'his' but decided not to comment, it seem like a touchy subject.

**"Are you - er - quite sure it's Grindelwald's -?"**

**"I am not mistaken," said Krum coldly. "I walked past that sign for several years, I know it vell."**

**"Well, there's a chance," said Harry, "that Xenophilius doesn't actually know what the symbol means, the Lovegoods are quite... unusual. He could have easily picked it up somewhere and think it's a cross section of the head of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack or something."**

Many snorted. They didn't even want to know what that was.

**"The cross section of a vot?"**

Sirius pointed at the book "Exactly"

**"Well, I don't know what they are, but apparently he and his daughter go on holiday looking for them..."**

**Harry felt he was doing a bad job explaining Luna and her father.**

"I think anyone would, son" James explained

**"That's her," he said, pointing at Luna, who was still dancing alone, waving her arms around her head like someone attempting to beat off midges.**

**"Vy is she doing that?" asked Krum.**

**"Probably trying to get rid of a Wrackspurt," said Harry, who recognized the symptoms.**

"That's it, he's been around her too much" Lily said, she seemed like a nice girl but all of the stuff she was talking about was real. It wasn't good to get stuff like that in your head.

**Krum did not seem to know whether or not Harry was making fun of him. He drew his hand from inside his robe and tapped it menacingly on his thighs; sparks flew out of the end.**

**"Gregorovitch!" said Harry loudly, and Krum started, but Harry was too excited to care; the memory had come back to him at the sight of Krum's wand: Ollivander taking it and examining it carefully before the Triwizard Tournament.**

"Is that why he thought Quidditch then?" Lily asked Remus, who nodded. A lot of people nodded along with them.

Remus had a other question though "He was one of the champions then?" Everyone thought that was reasonable and nodded

**"Vot about him?" asked Krum suspiciously.**

**"He's a wandmaker!"**

**"I know that," said Krum.**

"He obviously knows he's a wand maker, if he made his wand Harry" Frank chuckled

**"He made your wand! That's why I thought - Quidditch -"**

**Krum was looking more and more suspicious.**

**"How do you know Gregorovitch made my wand?"**

"Uh-oh, no one would know that if they weren't in the tournament" Alice predicted

**"I...I read It somewhere, I think," said Harry. "In a - a fan magazine," he improvised wildly and Krum looked mollified.**

"So believable" Sirius rolled his eyes. Harry needed to know how to lie.

**"I had not realized I ever discussed my vand with fans," he said.**

**"So... er... where is Gregorowitch these days?"**

**Krum looked puzzled.**

"No wonder. So would I, it's suspicious." Frank pointed out

**"He retired several years ago. I was one of the last to purchase a Gregorovitch vand. They are the best - although I know, of course, that your Britons set much store by Ollivander."**

"That's because he is" mostly everyone yelled.

**Harry did not answer. He pretended to watch the dancers, like Krum, but he was thinking hard. So Voldemort was looking for a celebrated wandmaker and Harry did not have to search far for a reason. It was surely because of what Harry' wand had done on the night that Voldemort pursued him across the skies. The holly and phoenix feather wand had conquered the borrowed wand, something that Ollivander had not anticipated or understood. Would Gregorowitch know better? Was he truly more skilled than Ollivander, did he know secrets of wands that Ollivander did not?**

"No" everyone said but they did look a little uncertain, what that true?

**"This girl is very nice-looking," Krum said, recalling Harry to his surroundings. Krum was pointing at Ginny, who had just joined Luna. "She is also a relative of yours?"**

Everyone snorted and "ohh" knowing Harry wouldn't like that.

**"Yeah," said Harry, suddenly irritated, "and she's seeing someone. Jealous type. Big bloke. You wouldn't want to cross him."**

Everyone burst out laughing. _Smooth move Harry. _Nearly everyone in the thought

**Krum grunted.**

**"Vot," he said, draining his goblet and getting to his feet again, "is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?"**

Lily signed in a disbelieving way "Um … I don't know … maybe because you like the game?" she added sarcastically. At least she knew James liked the game and it wasn't always about girls.

**And he strode off leaving Harry to take a sandwich from a passing waiter and make his way around the edge of the crowded dance floor. He wanted to find Ron, to tell him about Gregorovitch, but he was dancing with Hermione out in the middle of the floor. Harry leaned up against one of the golden pillars and watched Ginny, who was now dancing with Fred and George's friend Lee Jordan, trying not to feel resentful about the promise he had given Ron.**

"I really want to know why the broke up" Lily told everyone, they were a little curious too.

**He had never been to a wedding before, so he could not judge how Wizarding celebrations differed from Muggle ones, though he was pretty sure that the latter would not involve a wedding cake topped with two model phoenixes that took flight when the cake was cut, or bottles of champagne that floated unsupported through the crowd. As the evening drew in, and moths began to swoop under the canopy, now lit with floating golden lanterns, the revelry became more and more uncontained. Fred and George had long since disappeared into the darkness with a pair of Fleur's cousins; **

Arther chuckled at his sons while Molly shook her head at her son's actions.

**Charlie, Hagrid, and a squat wizard in a purple porkpie hat were singing "Odo the Hero" in the corner.**

"Someone's a little drunk." Sirius added to Molly and Arther while they said Charlie seemed nice, like their other sons. They liked hearing how their children would all grow up, by the sounds of things everyone was nice, expect from Percy, they didn't know what he was like. Because they haven't heard about him. They wondered what was so important that he couldn't be at his brother's wedding, they knew he was alive but they had a feeling he didn't get along with the family because of what 'Cried a bit about Percy not being here, _but who wants him'_ they shook their heads and concentrated on the book for now.

**Wandering through the crowd so as to escape a drunken uncle of Ron's who seemed unsure whether or not Harry was his son, Harry spotted an old wizard sitting alone at a table. His cloud of white hair made him look rather like an aged dandelion clock and was topped by a moth-eaten fez. He was vaguely familiar: Racking his brains, Harry suddenly realized that this was Elphias Doge, member of the Order of the Phoenix and the writer of Dumbledore's obituary.**

Elphias Doge, who had been quiet since the start whooped, everyone had forgotten he was there.

**Harry approached him.**

**"May I sit down?"**

**"Of course, of course," said Doge; he had a rather high-pitched, wheezy voice.**

**Harry leaned in.**

**"Mr. Doge, I'm Harry Potter."**

"That's not smart boy" Moody exclaimed.

"I'm sure he has his reasons." Doge answered but Moody just looked at him and rolled his eyes.

**Doge gasped.**

**"My dear boy! Arthur told me you were here, disguised... I am so glad, so honored!"**

"See, there you go again with the honored thing and that, I think it's more than just the prophecy because I don't see Dumbledore and Harry shouting it about the place. Can you?" Lily asked everyone at the table, they understood what she meant, but there was no other reason. They decided to forget about it just now.

**In a flutter of nervous pleasure Doge poured Harry a goblet of champagne.**

**"I thought of writing to you," he whispered, "after Dumbledore... the shock... and for you, I am sure..."**

**Doge's tiny eyes filled with sudden tears.**

"If I'm considering writing to him, then he must have been really close." Doge said

But James was becoming impatient, they already knew Harry, and Dumbledore were close.

**"I saw the obituary you wrote for the Daily Prophet," said Harry. "I didn't realize you knew Professor Dumbledore so well."**

**"As well as anyone," said Doge, dabbing his eyes with a napkin. "Certainly I knew him longest, if you don't count Aberforth - and somehow, people never do seem to count Aberforth."**

Aberforth grunted in acknowledgment. A lot of people looked uncomfortable, they never count him either, because the brother's were never close. Aberforth knew what they were thinking and thought _for good reason._

**"Speaking of the Daily Prophet... I don't know whether you saw, Mr. Doge -?"**

**"Oh, please call me Elphias, dear boy."**

**"Elphias, I don't know whether you saw the interview Rita Skeeter gave about Dumbledore?"**

"Oh no, he can't possible believe that?" Lily said, she was a little angry that Harry would believe that stuff about Dumbledore, considering how close they seemed.

**Doge's face flooded with angry color.**

"Too right." Elphias said while he crossed his arms.

**"Oh yes, Harry, I saw it. That woman, or vulture might be a more accurate term, positively pestered me to talk to her, I am ashamed to say that I became rather rude, called her an interfering trout, which resulted, as you my have seen, in aspersions cast upon my sanity."**

**"Well, in that interview," Harry went on, "Rita Skeeter hinted that Professor Dumbledore was involved in the Dark Arts when he was young."**

Dumbledore sighed, he just had a feeling Harry would find out, and when he does, so would everyone else.

**"Don't believe a word of it!" said Doge at once. "Not a word, Harry! Let nothing tarnish your memories of Albus Dumbledore!"**

"Thank you Elphias" he said with a grateful smile. But he couldn't help but think it wasn't true.

**Harry looked into Doge's earnest, pained face, and felt, not reassured, but frustrated. Did Doge really think it was that easy, that Harry could simply choose not to believe? Didn't Doge understand Harry's need to be sure, to know everything?**

"No, Harry, because you don't have to know everything" Lily said getting a bit angry and frustrated with her son.

Dumbledore sighed "It's okay, Mrs. Potter. I just died, and Harry is finding out things that I never mentioned, naturally he would have doubts." She smiled but she was still angry.

**Perhaps Doge suspected Harry's feelings, for he looked concerned and hurried on, "Harry, Rita Skeeter is a dreadful –"**

**But he was interrupted by a shrill cackle.**

**"Rita Skeeter? Oh, I love her, always read her!"**

"Why do I have a feeling, I know exactly who this is?" Sirius asking biting his lip. They all knew who this was. _Muriel._

**Harry and Doge looked up to see Auntie Muriel standing there, the plumes dancing on her hair, a goblet of champagne in her hand. "She's written a book about Dumbledore, you know!"**

"Oh, are we going to have to listen to this?" Lily asked, Dumbledore read a little bit ahead and could see this was going nowhere good.

He closed his eyes, then looked straight at Aberforth and said "Ariana" he said very softly. Everyone looked at each other. Only one of two of them knew about Ariana, most of them didn't know the brother's had a sister. Everyone looked completely confused with this one word, but not the brothers, and Doge knew a little about what was going to get said.

"That is not fair, we don't have to read this bit, Albus, Aberforth." He looked at the two with brothers sympathetic, but they shook their heads.

Aberforth answered for them both "No, I want to know what was said," so firmly, no one argued. But only three in the room knew who this 'Ariana' was.

"Yes, but I also can't read the rest of this chapter, who would like to?" He asked the table. Marlene McKinnon – who also had been quiet for some time – told them she would.

**"Hello, Muriel," said Doge, "Yes, we were just discussing -"**

**"You there! Give me your chair, I'm a hundred and seven!"**

"Oh, for Merlin, most of us are older than that."

**Another redheaded Weasley cousin jumped off his seat, looking alarmed, and Auntie Muriel swung it around with surprising strength and plopped herself down upon it between Doge and Harry.**

**"Hello again, Barry or whatever your name is," she said to Harry, "Now what were you saying about Rita Skeeter, Elphias? You know, she's written a biography of Dumbledore? I can't wait to read it. I must remember to place an order at Flourish and Blotts!"**

**Doge looked stiff and solemn at this but Auntie Muriel drained her goblet and clicked her bony fingers at a passing waiter for a replacement. She took another large gulp of champagne, belched and then said, "There's no need to look like a pair of stuffed frogs! Before he became so respected and respectable and all that tosh, there were some mighty funny rumors about Albus!"**

Everyone looked a little worried, they weren't sure they wanted to know.

**"Ill-informed sniping," said Doge, turning radish-colored again.**

**"You would say that, Elphias," cackled Auntie Muriel. "I noticed how you skated over the sticky patches in that obituary of yours!"**

"And what's that supposed to mean" Doge said hotly. But no one answered, the brothers had an idea, exactly what that meant.

**"I'm sorry you think so," said Doge, more coldly still. "I assure you I was writing from the heart."**

**"Oh, we all know you worshipped Dumbledore; I daresay you'll still think he was a saint even if it does turn out that he did away with his Squib sister!"**

Everyone froze; Aberforth who had been tapping his fingers on the table, suddenly stopped. He never said anything when they looked at him, when people looked at Dumbledore he looked pained but other than that, he didn't give anything away. Everyone thought the same question _They had a Squib sister? _And when they thought about it _They had a sister?_ They hadn't even known that. Everyone thought of that line again, and almost on cue, everyone gasped it said 'he did away with his Squib sister' what was that supposed to mean. No, that wasn't true, this was Dumbledore they were talking about, so what if he had a Squib sister, if she died then maybe it was just a painful topic that why he didn't talk about it. That didn't mean he killed her. He couldn't but everyone had a nagging voice in their heads. _What if this is the reason the brothers don't get on?_ But they pushed it away. There was obviously a better explanation.

**"Muriel!" exclaimed Doge.**

**A chill that had nothing to do with the iced champagne was stealing through Harry's chest.**

**"What do you mean?" he asked Muriel. "Who said his sister was a Squib? I thought she was ill?"**

Everyone thought about this, _maybe she was. But maybe if his sister was a Squib, that would explain why he was so nice to everyone, even those non-magical. But it could also just be because it was wrong in all senses to be mean to those, not like them._ They shook their heads and tried to just concentrate on the book. But their eyes kept traveling to the brothers who look as though they were screaming inside.

**"Thought wrong, then, didn't you, Barry!" said Auntie Muriel, looking delighted at the effect she had produced. "Anyway, how could you expect to know anything about it! It all happened years and years before you were even thought of, my dear, and the truth is that those of us who were alive then never knew what really happened. That's why I can't wait to find out what Skeeter's unearthed! Dumbledore kept that sister of his quiet for a long time!"**

**"Untrue!" wheezed Doge, "Absolutely untrue!"**

"Thank you" Dumbledore said quietly, everyone looked at each other, so his sister wasn't a Squib? They knew better that to ask the men who looked like they were about to cry. They didn't know what had happened but it must have been bad. This must have something to do why they were tore apart from each other.

**"He never told me his sister as a Squib," said Harry, without thinking, still cold inside.**

**"And why on earth would he tell you?" screeched Muriel, swaying a little in her seat as she attempted to focus upon Harry.**

**"The reason Albus never spoke about Ariana," began Elphias in a voice stiff with emotion, "is, I should have thought, quite clear. He was so devastated by her death -"**

A lot of the room nodded. Of course a brother would be devastated with their own sisters death. That was reasonable.

**"Why did nobody ever see her, Elphias?" squawked Muriel, "Why did half of us never even know she existed, until they carried the coffin out of the house and held a funeral for her? Where was saintly Albus while Ariana was locked in the cellar? Off being brilliant at Hogwarts, and never mind what was going on in his own house!"**

Aberforth and Albus made a sound like they were being choked, they were both pale white and shaking their heads. From this gesture everyone thought this meant that was not true.

**"What d'you mean, locked in the cellar?" asked Harry. This reminded Harry of when he was locked in the cupboard at the Dursleys "What is this?"**

Lily lost it "He can't possible believe that? He can't just give up on you like that? That's not fair on you at all" But Albus took one last look at Aberforth and held his hand up.

"I will get one thing straight, my sister was not a Squib, she was ill." Aberforth nodded with this "Also, if you had spent half your life locked in a cupboard, you would honestly jump to conclusions, because them memories obviously aren't happy ones, I wish Harry didn't believe that, because it's not true but if any of us were in his position. I think we would do the same" he told them sighing sadly at the end. Everyone thought about it, it was probably true. But they were still angry with Harry.

**Doge looked wretched. Auntie Muriel cackled again and answered Harry.**

**"Dumbledore's mother was a terrifying woman, simply terrifying. Muggle-born, though I heard she pretended otherwise-"**

Aberforth spoke now and his voice shook a little "Now, another thing we need to get straight. That is not true. Our mother was one of the nicest woman I know. She was happy, and loving and she loved Ariana with all her heart. She loved all of us with all her heart." He said sadly. _How I wish I was there, maybe she wouldn't have died._ Everyone nodded. Arther was fuming about his Aunt saying all of this, when she didn't even know if it was true.

**"She never pretended anything of the sort! Kendra was a fine woman," whispered Doge miserably, but Auntie Muriel ignored him.**

"Thank you again" Dumbledore said to Doge who smiled slightly and waved it away.

**"- proud and very domineering, the sort of witch who would have been mortified to produce a Squib-"**

Everyone could hear Aberforth's tapping getting louder, as if he was trying to drown out the words.

**"Ariana was not a Squib!" wheezed Doge.**

**"So you say, Elphias, but explain, then, why she never attended Hogwarts!" said Auntie Muriel. She turned back to Harry. "In our day, Squibs were often hushed up, thought to take it to the extreme of actually imprisoning a little girl in the house and pretending she didn't exist -"**

"She was ill" Dumbledore said firmly but they could all hear the little shake in his voice.

**"I tell you, that's not what happened!" said Doge, but Auntie Muriel steamrollered on, still addressing Harry.**

**Squibs were usually shipped off to Muggle schools and encouraged to integrate into the Muggle community... much kinder than trying to find them a place in the Wizarding world, where they must always be second class, but naturally Kendra Dumbledore wouldn't have dreamed of letting her daughter go to a Muggle school –" **

**"Ariana was delicate!" said Doge desperately. "Her health was always too poor to permit her -"**

Aberforth was now the one thanking Doge, which surprised him a little.

**"- to permit her to leave the house?" cackled Muriel. "And yet she was never taken to St. Mungo's and no Healer was ever summoned to see her!"**

**"Really, Muriel, how can you possibly know whether -"**

**"For your information, Elphias, my cousin Lancelot was a Healer at St. Mungo's at the time, and he told my family in strictest confidence that Ariana had never been seen there. All most suspicious, Lancelot thought!"**

"If it was in Strictest confidence, then why are you telling them, and a boy who you don't even know" Lily nearly yelled fuming. She really hated his woman.

**Doge looked to be on the verge of tears. Auntie Muriel, who seemed to be enjoying herself hugely, snapped her fingers for more champagne. Numbly Harry thought of how the Dursleys had once shut him up, locked him away, kept him out of sight, all for the crime of being a wizard. Had Dumbledore's sister suffered the same fate in reverse: imprisoned for her lack of magic? **

James swallowed hard and said with his eyes closed "I really, really wish that wasn't true. Not about Ariana, because I know that isn't true" he said reassuring the two brothers who nodded at him. "I mean I wish that Harry had never been trapped like that, I can see where he was coming from, why he jumped to conclusions, so would you if most of your life you'd been treated like that." Everyone understood.

Lily was sobbing. Harry was such a good boy in these books, how could her sister do this, to her child. To her own sister's child. She knew that if it had been reverse. Dudley would be treated just like Harry would.

**And had Dumbledore truly left her to her fate while he went off to Hogwarts to prove himself brilliant and talented?**

Aberforth loved his brother but he would never forgive him. And right now he could help but think _Least the boy had something right_

**"Now, if Kendra hadn't died first," Muriel resumed, "I'd have said that it was she who finished off Ariana -"**

That was enough. Aberforth had a tear running down his cheek when he kicked the table so hard the four legs lifted off the ground. Everyone felt like doing the same, even though they hadn't known Ariana or Kendra, but they knew that from the brothers had said. Kendra loved her children, All of them. Ariana was ill, and a mother could never kill their own child, no matter how much, they hated them anyway. And Sirius added in thought _even mine._

**"How can you, Muriel!" groaned Doge. "A mother kill her own daughter? Think what you're saying!"**

Everyone nodded.

**"If the mother in question was capable of imprisoning her daughter for years on end, why not?" shrugged Auntie Muriel. "But as I say, it doesn't fit, because Kendra died before Ariana - of what, nobody ever seemed sure-"**

**"Yes, Ariana might have made a desperate bid for freedom and killed Kendra in the struggle," said Auntie Muriel thoughtfully. "Shake your head all you like, Elphias. You were at Ariana's funeral, were you not?"**

Aberforth and Albus tensed, one bit of that sentence was true. Too true. They looked at each other, and say refection of their own sadness in each other's eyes.

**"Yes I was," said Doge, through trembling lips, "and a more desperately sad occasion I cannot remember. Albus was heartbroken-"**

"Naturally." Was repeated around the room.

**"His heart wasn't the only thing. Didn't Aberforth break Albus' nose halfway through the service?"**

Everyone looked at Aberforth in shock and saw a slight twitch of a smile on his lips, as though he was remembering the thought – which he was – and it confirmed that actually happened. But why? Was thought in nearly every head in the room.

**If Doge had looked horrified before this, it was nothing to how he looked now. Muriel might have stabbed him. She cackled loudly and took another swig of champagne, which dribbled down her chin.**

**"How do you -?" croaked Doge.**

**"My mother was friendly with old Bathilda Bagshot," said Auntie Muriel happily. "Bathilda described the whole thing to mother while I was listening at the door. A coffin-side brawl. The way Bathilda told it, Aberforth shouted that it was all Albus' fault that Ariana was dead and then punched him in the face.**

Everyone looked at each other in shock. They were now almost certain, this was why the brothers didn't get along. Doge sighed remembering this. But even he didn't know how Ariana died. He was positive it wasn't Albus's fault but – like everyone else in the room, apart from the brothers – thought how could it be his fault? How could it be?

** According to Bathilda, Albus did not even defend himself, and that's odd enough in itself.**

Everyone thought that was a little suspicious, but they all knew Dumbledore, and they all knew this, he wouldn't do that.

** Albus could have destroyed Aberforth in a duel with both hands tied behind his back."**

Aberforth grunted, he hadn't thought of that at the time, and even if he had, he didn't think it would have stopped him.

**Muriel swigged yet more champagne. The recitation of those old scandals seemed to elate her as much as they horrified Doge. Harry did not know what to think, what to believe. He wanted the truth and yet all Doge did was sit there and bleat feebly that Ariana had been ill. Harry could hardly believe that Dumbledore would not have intervened if such cruelty was happening inside his own house, and yet there was undoubtedly something odd about the story.**

Everyone nodded. They weren't sure what they believe either, they knew it wasn't true but there was something odd about it.

**"And I'll tell you something else," Muriel said, hiccupping slightly as she lowered her goblet. "I think Bathilda has spilled the beans to Rita Skeeter. All those hints in Skeeter's interview about an important source close to the Dumbledores - goodness knows she was there all through the Ariana business, and it would fit!"**

Dumbledore sighed "Bethilda, wouldn't do that, well not knowingly at least" Everyone was fuming they knew what he meant. Every way Rita could get that information was illegal.

**"Bathilda, would never talk to Rita Skeeter!" whispered Doge.**

**"Bathilda Bagshot?" Harry said. "The author of A History of Magic?"**

**The name was printed on the front of one of Harry's textbooks, though admittedly not one of the ones he had read more attentively.**

"That's my boy" James bragged, which lightened the mood a little.

**"Yes," said Doge, clutching at Harry's question like a drowning man at a life heir. "A most gifted magical historian and an old friend of Albus's."**

**"Quite gaga these days, I've heard," said Auntie Muriel cheerfully.**

**"If that is so, it is even more dishonorable for Skeeter to have taken advantage of her," said Doge, "and no reliance can be placed on anything Bathilda may have said!"**

**"Oh, there are ways of bringing back memories, and I'm sure Rita Skeeter knows them all," said Auntie Muriel "But even if Bathilda's completely cuckoo, I'm sure she'd still have old photographs, maybe even letters. She knew the Dumbledores for years... Well worth a trip to Godric's Hollow, I'd have thought."**

**Harry, who had been taking a sip of butterbeer, choked. Doge banged him on the back as Harry coughed, looking at Auntie Muriel through streaming eyes.**

"Why?" Everyone asked, that bit they didn't know. What was so wrong with Godric's Hollow?

** Once he had control of his voice again, he asked, "Bathilda Bagshot lives in Godric's Hollow?"**

**"Oh yes, she's been there forever! The Dumbledores moved there after Percival was imprisoned, and she was their neighbor."**

**"The Dumbledores lived in Godric's Hollows?"**

"I didn't know that, Sir" Lily told Dumbledore, he smiled at her sadly.

"Not many people do" He sighed then added sadly "not many people know anything about my childhood."

**"Yes, Barry, that's what I just said," said Auntie Muriel testily.**

**Harry felt drained, empty. Never once, in six years, had Dumbledore told Harry that they had both lived and lost loved ones in Godric's Hollow. **

Everyone closed their eyes, they understood now. He just wanted comfort.

**Why? Were Lily and James buried close to Dumbledore's mother and sister? Had Dumbledore visited their graves, perhaps walked past Lily's and James's to do so? And he had never once told Harry ... never bothered to say...**

"Do you think you had?" Lily asked sadly

"I don't know Mrs. Potter. Most likely" he answered

**And why it was so important, Harry could not explain even to himself, yet he felt it had been tantamount to a lie not to tell him that they had this place and these experiences in common. **

"I most likely, didn't want to think about it" but he understood Harry. He didn't know if Harry had been their before, but from what he heard, it seemed unlikely.

**He stared ahead of him, barely noticing what was going on around him, and did not realize that Hermione had appeared out of the crowd until she drew up a chair beside him.**

"Good. We're not talking about it anymore" Everyone sighed in relief but none more than the two brothers.

**"I simply can't dance anymore," she panted, slipping of one of her shoes and rubbing the sole of her foot. "Ron's gone looking to find more butterbeers. It's a bit odd. I've just seen Viktor storming away from Luna's father, it looked like they'd been arguing -" She dropped her voice, staring at him. "Harry, are you okay?"**

**Harry did not know where to begin, but it did not matter, at that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus's mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.**

**"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."**

Everyone stared at each other in shock. They did not expect that. Not in a million years. Some where muttering weakly "but how" and others were gulping like goldfish eating. It would be comical if the situation was different.

Dumbledore was the first was to get back in control. He turned to the back page. "I promised I'd read, about your son and Greyback. Do you want me to start?" Molly and Arther still in shock just nodded mutely.


	13. The Phoenix Lament

Dumbledore was the first was to get back in control. He turned to the back page. "I promised I'd read, about your son and Greyback. Do you want me to start?" Molly and Arther still in shock just nodded mutely.

He looked at the pages in front of them, there were two chapters. When Aberforth asked him to hurry up he told them there was two chapters.

"Why? What else do we want to know?" She asked sounding a little hopeful "Do you think it will be why he is famous? Other than the prophecy." Everyone frowned in thought, Yes that was most likely what it was.

"I'll read about young Mr. Weasley first though, shall I?" Everyone agreed. They just hoped it wasn't too bad. He Began.

**Come here, Harry ..." **

**"No." **

**"Yeh can' stay here, Harry. ... Come on, now..." **

**"No."**

Lily looked up "Where is he?"

"I don't know, but we all know that's Hagrid with him." They all nodded.

**He did not want to leave Dumbledores side, he did not want to move anywhere. **

Everyone gasped. Dumbledore looked a little sad that the boy wanted to stay beside his dead body. _The poor boy._

"Sir?" Lily said feebly. "Do you think that's after – well – when you." But she seemed to not be able to finish that sentence.

"Yes, Mrs. Potter, I think this is after I died."

**Hagrid's hand on his shoulder was trembling. Then another voice said, "Harry, come on."**

**A much smaller and warmer hand had enclosed his and was pulling him upward. He obeyed its pressure without really thinking about it. Only as he walked blindly back through the crowd did he realize, from a trace of flowery scent on the air, that it was Ginny who was leading him back into the castle. **

A lot of people smiled. James looked at Lily and smiled fondly. His son had found his own _Lily._

**Incomprehensible voices battered him, sobs and shouts and wails stabbed the night, but Harry and Ginny walked on, back up the steps into the entrance hall. Faces swam on the edges of Harry's vision, people were peering at him, whispering, wondering, and Gryffindor rubies glistened on the floor like drops of blood as they made their way toward the marble staircase.**

**"We're going to the hospital wing," said Ginny.**

**"I'm not hurt," said Harry.**

**"It's McGonagalls orders," said Ginny.**

McGonagall smiled and sighed "I have not been mentioned yet, I didn't know if I was alive, but I didn't want to mention it out loud." The rest of the room nodded. The one's who had not been mentioned had been wondering the same about themselve's.

** "Everyone's up there, Ron and Hermione and Lupin and everyone -"**

**Fear stirred in Harry's chest again: He had forgotten the inert figures he had left behind.**

**"Ginny, who else is dead?" **

Everyone tensed.

**"Don't worry, none of us."**

**"But the Dark Mark - Malfoy said he stepped over a body -"**

**"He stepped over Bill, but its all right, he's alive."**

A lot let out a breathe of relief, but he really wanted to know what happened to Bill.

**There was something in her voice, however, that Harry knew boded ill.**

**"Are you sure?"**

**"Of course I'm sure . . . he's a - a bit of a mess, that's all. Greyback attacked him. Madam Pomfrey says he won't - won't look the same anymore. . . ."**

"Well, of course he won't, he's been attacked by a werewolf." Moody claimed. He got a few glares, especially from Molly.

**Ginny's voice trembled a little.**

**"We don't really know what the aftereffects will be - I mean, Greyback being a werewolf, but not transformed at the time."**

"Why in Merlin's name, would he attack then?" Remus said looking disgusted. "Is he really letting the werewolf side take over that much" he added massaging his temple. He didn't even want to think about it.

**"But the others . . . There were other bodies on the ground. . . ."**

**"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, **

Alice and Franks head snapped up at the mention of their son's name.

**but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere - Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us -"**

"Well, then thank Merlin, for that Felix potion" Arther said looking wary.

**They had reached the hospital wing. Pushing open the doors, Harry saw Neville lying, apparently asleep, in a bed near the door. **

Alice cooed, she was happy to hear about him, since they hadn't before. Apart from hearing his name. She hadn't heard him do anything or be in the same room as Harry. Everyone smiled that Alice got to hear this.

**Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks, and Lupin were gathered around another bed near the far end of the ward. At the sound of the doors opening, they all looked up. Hermione ran to Harry and hugged him; Lupin moved forward too, looking anxious.**

**"Are you all right, Harry?" **

**"I'm fine... How's Bill?" **

**Nobody answered. Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque. **

Molly started sobbing lightly, a lot of people who had met little Bill looked pained. Molly was thinking about everything this war was going to do to her children. She was shaking with tears, and could feel Arther rubbing circles on her back.

**Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds with some harsh-smelling green ointment. Harry remembered how Snape had mended Malfoy's Sectumsempra wounds so easily with his wand.**

Lily gasped again. And said "That spell sound be an unforgivable" no one asked what it did, to be honest they didn't want to know.

**"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" he asked the matron.**

**"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."**

**"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," said Ron, who was gazing down into his brother's face as though he could somehow force him to mend just by staring. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a - a real - ?" **

**He looked uncertainly at Lupin.**

Remus chuckled and whispered "Yes, look the werewolf"

**"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," said Lupin, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and - and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."**

"My poor, little boy, he's at my mother's just now and he'll be playing along with his other brothers, not knowing about what's going to happen" then she began to sob again. Everyone sighed. _Poor boy._

**"Dumbledore might know something that'd work, though," Ron said. "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders, Dumbledore owes him, he can't leave him in this state -"**

Everyone froze. _Uh-oh._

**"Ron - Dumbledores dead," said Ginny.**

"She's got tact" Siruis added emotionless. He just couldn't picture Dumbledore. Their Dumbledore. Their headmaster. Dead.

**"No!" Lupin looked wildly from Ginny to Harry, as though hoping the latter might contradict her, but when Harry did nor, Lupin collapsed into a chair beside Bill's bed, his hands over his face. Harry had never seen Lupin lose control before; **

Remus shook his head. "Well, you're not someone I expected to die I'm sure." He told everyone, they all agreed. They still didn't fully believed he would die.

**he felt as though he was intruding upon something private, indecent. He turned away and caught Ron's eye instead, exchanging in silence a look that confirmed what Ginny had said.**

**"How did he die?" whispered Tonks. "How did it happen?"**

"Yes, how?"

**"Snape killed him," said Harry.**

Their was a shooked silence. Every eye had gone wide. Then Lily exploded. "To think I was ever best friends with that – that – that" she seemed unable to form a work bad enough. Then she just moaned in frustration. Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued as if he was unaffected.

** "I was there, I saw it. **

Everyone groaned. What else did this boy need to see, he was only a boy for Merlin's sake.

**We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was. . . . Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak - and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him -"**

**Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth and Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled.**

"What's that about?"

**"- more Death Eaters arrived - and then Snape - and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on.**

"Everyone bowed their heads but then the reading continued. They only wanted to hear about Bill but apparently they got other question's answered.

**Madam Pomfrey burst into tears. Nobody paid her any attention except Ginny, who whispered, "Shh! Listen!"**

**Gulping, Madam Pomfrey pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes wide. Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing in a way Harry had never heard before: a stricken lament of terrible beauty. And Harry felt, as he had felt about phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows.**

Albus smiled sadly then he whispered fondly "Fawkes."

**How long they all stood there, listening, he did not know, nor why it seemed to ease their pain a little to listen to the sound of their mourning, but it felt like a long time later that the hospital door opened again and Professor McGonagall entered the ward. Like all the rest, she bore marks of the recent battle: There were grazes on her face and her robes were ripped.**

Everyone look at her concerned but she never said anything.

**"Molly and Arthur are on their way," she said, and the spell of the music was broken: Everyone roused themselves as though coming out of trances, turning again to look at Bill, or else to rub their own eyes and shake their heads. "Harry, what happened? According to Hagrid you were with Professor Dumbledore when he - when it happened. He says Professor Snape was involved in some -" **

**"Snape killed Dumbledore," said Harry.**

Sirius sighed again "he's another one with such tact, no wonder Harry and Ginny get along" a few people smiled at that.

**She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly; Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall.**

A couple of people laughed quietly at that image and McGonagall huffed but it did sound a little funny.

**"Snape," repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. "We all wondered . . . but he trusted . . . always . . . Snape ... I can't believe it. ..."**

"Why, would you trust him." James snarled "He's a bloody death eater, and you knew it."

Dumbledore nodded "I don't know, Mr. Potter. I really don't" and his eyebrows knitted together.

**"Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens," said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "We always knew that."**

**"But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!" whispered Tonks. "I always thought Dumbledore must know something about Snape that we didn't. ..." .**

"Like what?" Remus said in a harsh voice, so unlike himself.

**"He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape," muttered Professor McGonagall, now dabbing at the corners of her leaking eyes with a tartan-edged handkerchief. "I mean . . . with Snapes history ... of course people were bound to wonder. . . but Dumbledore told me explicitly that Snape's repentance was absolutely genuine - Wouldn't hear a word against him!"**

Dumbledore stopped and put the book down and rubbed his eyes, and then muttered "but why?" Everyone just as confused as him, if not more.

**"I'd love to know what Snape told him to convince him," said Tonks.**

**"I know," said Harry, and they all turned to look at him. "Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead."**

Lily gasped. "He's the reason I'm dead. My old best friend, is the reason I'm dead." James was still with shock. Would Snape sink that low, to get something on Him – James?

Dumbledore was shaking his head "No, I trust a lot, but not without reason." He assured them, they looked doubtful, but nodded just the same.

**They all stared at him.**

**"And Dumbledore believed that?" said Lupin incredulously. "Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James. . . ."**

"Exactly, but why would he do that to Lily?"

**"And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn either," said Harry, "because she was Muggle-born... 'Mudblood,' he called her. ..."**

Lily's bottom lip trembled a little bit. James was rubbing her arm in a soothing way but it wasn't helping much. She was unaware to it even happening.

**Nobody asked how Harry knew this. All of them seemed to be lost in horrified shock, trying to digest the monstrous truth of what had happened.**

**"This is all my fault," said Professor McGonagall suddenly. She looked disoriented, twisting her wet handkerchief in her hands. "My fault. I sent Filius to fetch Snape tonight, I actually sent for him to come and help us! If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don't think he knew they were coming."**

"That isn't your fault" Sirius told her and she nodded to him, in a thank you way.

**"It isn't your fault, Minerva," said Lupin firmly. "We all wanted more help, we were glad to think Snape was on his way..."**

"Why does it sound like he was boss or something?" Remus asked the faces around him, but most just leaned back in their seats looking slightly stressed.

**"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined in on the Death Eaters' side?" asked Harry, who wanted every detail of Snape's duplicity and infamy, feverishly collecting more reasons to hate him, to swear vengeance.**

Most just shook their head, they knew how Harry felt.

**"I don't know exactly how it happened," said Professor McGonagall distractedly. "It's all so confusing. . . . Dumbledore had told us that he would be leaving the school for a few hours and that we were to patrol the corridors just in case . . . Remus, Bill, and Nymphadora were to join us ... and so we patrolled. All seemed quiet. Every secret passageway out of the school was covered. We knew nobody could fly in. There were powerful enchantments on every entrance into the castle. I still don't know how the Death Eaters can possibly have entered. . . ."**

**"I do," said Harry, and he explained, briefly, about the pair of Vanishing Cabinets and the magical pathway they formed. "So they got in through the Room of Requirement."**

No one even seemed to take this in, they just looked tired and stressed.

**Almost against his will he glanced from Ron to Hermione, both of whom looked devastated.**

**"I messed up, Harry," said Ron bleakly. "We did like you told us: We checked the Marauder's Map and we couldn't see Malfoy on it, so we thought he must be in the Room of Requirement, so me, Ginny, and Neville went to keep watch on it... but Malfoy got past us."**

"How is that even possible?" Sirius asked "How can one teenager, take on three?" He was regretting even entering this chapter.

**"He came out of the room about an hour after we started keeping watch," said Ginny. "He was on his own, clutching that awful shriveled arm -"**

**"His Hand of Glory," said Ron. "Gives light only to the holder, remember?"**

**"Anyway," Ginny went on, "he must have been checking whether the coast was clear to let the Death Eaters out, because the moment he saw us he threw something into the air and it all went pitch-black -"**

**"- Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," said Ron bitterly. "Fred and George's. I'm going to be having a word with them about who they let buy their products."**

"Product's? What? It's like they own a shop and sell their own product." Molly mumbled

Arther looked a little excited "That's it, they own their own business. That's how they have more money than the rest of the family put together" everyone smiled at this.

**"We tried everything, Lumos, Incendio," said Ginny. "Nothing would penetrate the darkness; all we could do was grope our way out of the corridor again, and meanwhile we could hear people rushing past us. Obviously Malfoy could see because of that hand thing and was guiding them, but we didn't dare use any curses or anything in case we hit each other, and by the time we'd reached a corridor that was light, they'd gone."**

**"Luckily," said Lupin hoarsely, "Ron, Ginny, and Neville ran into us almost immediately and told us what had happened. We found the Death Eaters minutes later, heading in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. Malfoy obviously hadn't expected more people to be on the watch; he seemed to have exhausted his supply of Darkness Powder, at any rate. A fight broke out, they scattered and we gave chase. One of them, Gibbon, broke away and headed up the tower stairs -"**

**"To set off the Mark?" asked Harry.**

"There was Dark Mark at the school" McGonagall muttered weakly.

**"He must have done, yes, they must have arranged that before they left the Room of Requirement," said Lupin. "But I don't think Gibbon liked the idea of waiting up there alone for Dumbledore, because he came running back downstairs to rejoin the fight and was hit by a Killing Curse that just missed me."**

Everyone gasped, Remus was so close. Remus bit his lip.

**"So if Ron was watching the Room of Requirement with Ginny and Neville," said Harry, turning to Hermione, "were you - ?"**

**"Outside Snape's office, yes," whispered Hermione, her eyes sparkling with tears, "with Luna. We hung around for ages outside it and nothing happened. . . . We didn't know what was going on upstairs, Ron had taken the map-It was nearly midnight when Professor Flitwick came sprinting down into the dungeons. He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don't think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape's office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and Snape came hurtling out of his room and he saw us and - and -" **

"What happened" everyone muttered a little more alert now.

**"What?" Harry urged her.**

**"I was so stupid, Harry!" said Hermione in a high-pitched whisper. "He said Professor Flitwick had collapsed and that we should go and take care of him while he - while he went to help fight the Death Eaters -" She covered her face in shame and continued to talk into her fingers, so that her voice was muffled. "We went into his office to see if we could help Professor Flitwick and found him unconscious on the floor. . . and oh, it's so obvious now, Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but we didn't realize, Harry, we didn't realize, we just let Snape go!"**

"They couldn't have done anything" McGonagall sighed.

**"It's not your fault," said Lupin firmly. "Hermione, had you not obeyed Snape and got out of the way, he probably would have killed you and Luna."**

"How are you all talking about death so easily." Lily asked everyone in the room

Remus answered a little harshly "Seems we have a lot of experience, in the matter Lily." Everyone bowed their heads. They knew that was true.

**"So then he came upstairs," said Harry, who was watching Snape running up the marble staircase in his mind's eye, his black robes billowing behind him as ever, pulling his wand from under his cloak as he ascended, "and he found the place where you were all fighting. ..."**

**"We were in trouble, we were losing," said Tonks in a low voice. "Gibbon was down, but the rest of the Death Eaters seemed ready to fight to the death. Neville had been hurt, Bill had been savaged by Greyback... It was all dark . . . curses flying everywhere . . . The Malfoy boy had vanished, he must have slipped past, up the stairs . . . then more of them ran after him, but one of them blocked the stair behind them with some kind of curse. . . . Neville ran at it and got thrown up into the air -"**

Alice whimpered, she wasn't even there to help … she wished she still alive.

**"None of us could break through," said Ron, "and that massive Death Eater was still firing off jinxes all over the place, they were bouncing off the walls and barely missing us. . . ."**

**"And then Snape was there," said Tonks, "and then he wasn't -"**

**"I saw him running toward us, but that huge Death Eaters jinx just missed me right afterward and I ducked and lost track of things," said Ginny.**

"They seem to know how to fight" Molly added to everyone's thoughts "They are only children. One or two of them of age and they are fighting Death Eaters" No one answered. This war right now was nothing compared to all of this.

**"I saw him run straight through the cursed barrier as though it wasn't there," said Lupin. "I tried to follow him, but was thrown back just like Neville. . . ."**

**"He must have known a spell we didn't," whispered McGonagall. "After all - he was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. ... I just assumed that he was in a hurry to chase after the Death Eaters who'd escaped up to the tower. ..."**

**"He was," said Harry savagely, "but to help them, not to stop them . . . and I'll bet you had to have a Dark Mark to get through that barrier - so what happened when he came back down?"**

"That makes sense." Lily said quietly

"Wait, a moment, if you need the Dark Mark to get though that barrier, that mean this Draco boy, already had it." Everyone looked horrified at the thought of someone so young, being one of them.

**"Well, the big Death Eater had just fired off a hex that caused half the ceiling to fall in, and also broke the curse blocking the stairs," said Lupin. "We all ran forward - those of us who were still standing anyway - and then Snape and the boy emerged out of the dust - obviously, none of us attacked them -"**

**"We just let them pass," said Tonks in a hollow voice. "We thought they were being chased by the Death Eaters - and next thing, the other Death Eaters and Greyback were back and we were fighting again - I thought I heard Snape shout something, but I don't know what -"**

**"He shouted, 'It's over,'" said Harry. "He'd done what he'd meant to do."**

Everyone just shook their heads, this is what most of their children will be up against. This was their future.

**They all fell silent. Fawkes's lament was still echoing over the dark grounds outside. As the music reverberated upon the air, unbidden, unwelcome thoughts slunk into Harry's mind. . . . Had they taken Dumbledore's body from the foot of the tower yet? What would happen to it next? Where would it rest? He clenched his fists tighdy in his pockets. He could feel the small cold lump of the fake Horcrux against the knuckles of his right hand.**

"Sir, that's where you must have been, remember McGonagall said, you said, you were going to be out of school for a few hours, that's why Harry was with you too. You were going to get a Horcrux" Remus told them reasonably. Every nodded that was most likely true.

**The doors of the hospital wing burst open, making them all jump: Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were striding up the ward, Fleur just behind them, her beautiful face terrified.**

**"Molly - Arthur -" said Professor McGonagall, jumping up and hurrying to greet them. "I am so sorry -"**

**"Bill," whispered Mrs. Weasley, darting past Professor McGonagall as she caught sight of Bill's mangled face. "Oh, Bill!"**

Molly groaned again. Arther looked a little pained.

**Lupin and Tonks had got up hastily and retreated so that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could get nearer to the bed. Mrs. Weasley bent over her son and pressed her lips to his bloody forehead.**

**"You said Greyback attacked him?" Mr. Weasley asked Professor McGonagall distractedly. "But he hadn't transformed? So what does that mean? What will happen to Bill?"**

Everyone looked at the book, what would happen? Werewolf's don't usually attack without a full moon.

**"We don't yet know," said Professor McGonagall, looking helplessly at Lupin.**

Remus chuckled again.

**"There will probably be some contamination, Arthur," .said Lupin. "It is an odd case, possibly unique. . . . We don't know what his behavior might be like when he awakens. . . ."**

Everyone looked a little tense and was bitting their lip. They knew he was married and stuff though.

**Mrs. Weasley took the nasty-smelling ointment from Madam Pomfrey and began dabbing at Bill's wounds.**

**"And Dumbledore ..." said Mr. Weasley. "Minerva, is it true ... Is he really. . . ?"**

**As Professor McGonagall nodded, Harry felt Ginny move beside him and looked at her. Her slightly narrowed eyes were fixed upon Fleur, who was gazing down at Bill with a frozen expression on her face.**

"Why would her eye's narrow? I thought everyone got along?" Molly asked momentary distracted

**"Dumbledore gone," whispered Mr. Weasley, but Mrs. Weasley had eyes only for her eldest son; she began to sob, tears falling onto Bill's mutilated face.**

**"Of course, it doesn't matter how he looks. . . . It's not r-really important. . . but he was a very handsome little b-boy . . . always very handsome . . . and he was g-going to be married!"**

**"And what do you mean by zat?" said Fleur suddenly and loudly. "What do you mean, ' he was going to be married?'"**

"Oh, no I think you've upset her now, honey." Arther chuckled slightly when he saw his wife squirm a little

Sirius laughed and said "don't make a Veela angry, you don't want to see it" and a few laughed with him.

**Mrs. Weasley raised her tear-stained face, looking startled. "Well -only that-"**

**"You theenk Bill will not wish to marry me anymore?" demanded Fleur. "You theenk, because of these bites, he will not love me?"**

"I think it's the other way around Fleur," Lily said a little amused.

**"No, that's not what I -"**

**"Because 'e will!" said Fleur, drawing herself up to her full height and throwing back her long mane of silver hair. "It would take more zan a werewolf to stop Bill loving me!"**

**"Well, yes, I'm sure," said Mrs. Weasley, "but I thought perhaps - given how - how he -"**

**"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. **

"I don't think you two get along" Sirius said chuckling to himself.

Molly looked concerned, she liked Fleur in the last book. What changed?

**"What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!" she added fiercely, pushing Mrs. Weasley aside and snatching the ointment from her.**

A few people snorted. You had to have guts to do that.

**Mrs. Weasley fell back against her husband and watched Fleur mopping up Bill's wounds with a most curious expression upon her face. Nobody said anything; Harry did not dare move. Like everybody else, he was waiting for the explosion.**

Molly laughed but it sounded a little like a sob. "They know me well" and then a few other people laughed too.

**"Our Great-Auntie Muriel," said Mrs. Weasley after a long pause, "has a very beautiful tiara - goblin-made - which I am sure I could persuade her to lend you for the wedding. She is very fond of Bill, you know, and it would look lovely with your hair."**

**"Thank you," said Fleur stiffly. "I am sure zat will be lovely."**

A few people laughed again.

**And then, Harry did not quite see how it happened, both, women were crying and hugging each other. Completely bewildered, wondering whether the world had gone mad, he turned around: Ron looked as stunned as he felt and Ginny and Hermione were exchanging startled looks.**

Everyone looked at each other then burst out laughing. Molly giggled slightly, "I guess that;s why I like her." And everyone nodded at her.

**"You see!" said a strained voice. Tonks was glaring at Lupin. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!**

Sirius burst out laughing. So they would hear how Remus and Dora got together. Everyone turned to look at Remus who looked pale and his eye were wide. Which made Sirius laugh harder and James to start. Lily told them to stop but she also had a smile on her lips.

**"It's different," said Lupin, barely moving his lips and looking suddenly tense. "Bill will not be a full werewolf. The cases are completely -"**

Mostly the whole room rolled their eyes. This was Remus they knew.

**"But I don't care either, I don't care!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times. . . ." **

Sirius was not wiping tears of laugher on his sleeve. James thumped Remus on the back but he just got glared at, which made him laugh even harder.

**And the meaning of Tonks's Patronus and her mouse-colored hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumor someone had been attacked by Greyback, all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sinus that Tonks had fallen in love with after all.**

Sirius stopped so suddenly everyone looked at him startled and then his expression turned to disgust and Remus was the one laughing his head off. Everyone smiled at the exchange and Sirius muttered "not funny" under this breathe.

**"And I've told you a million times," said Lupin, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor, "that I am too old for you, too poor . . . too dangerous. . . ."**

"Same old excuses. They get boring after a while, you really should think of new ones" James added as he rolled his eyes. He looked to Lily for support but she nodded as 'no'

**"I've said all along you're taking a ridiculous line on this, Remus," said Mrs. Weasley over Fleur's shoulder as she patted her on the back.**

Molly was smiling "I know we get on now, but it's nice to hear about this." Her husband smiled back at her.

**"I am not being ridiculous," said Lupin steadily. "Tonks deserves somebody young and whole."**

**"But she wants you," said Mr. Weasley, with a small smile. "And after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so."**

**He gestured sadly at his son, lying between them.**

"Exactly" Arther agreed with his future self.

**"This is... not the moment to discuss it," said Lupin, avoiding everybody's eyes as he looked around distractedly. "Dumbledore is dead. ..."**

Dumbledore smiled at this "It seems you are trying to convince you're self as much as our young Miss Tonks." Remus didn't say anything but to him, it sounded like that too.

"Such tact" Lily said as she rolled her eyes at her friend.

**"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world," said Professor McGonagall curtly, just as the hospital doors opened again and Hagrid walked in.**

**The little of his face that was not obscured by hair or beard was soaking and swollen; he was shaking with tears, a vast, spotted handkerchief in his hand.**

Everyone looked sad at this. "Hagrid" they all said sadly.

**"I've . . . I've done it, Professor," he choked. "M-moved him. Professor Sprout's got the kids back in bed. Professor Flitwick's lyin down, but he says he'll be all righ' in a jiffy, an' Professor Slughorn says the Ministry's bin informed."**

**"Thank you, Hagrid," said Professor McGonagall, standing up at once and turning to look at the group around Bill's bed. "I shall have to see the Ministry when they get here. Hagrid, please tell the Heads of Houses - Slughorn can represent Slytherin - that I want to see them in my office forthwith. I would like you to join us too."**

**As Hagrid nodded, turned, and shuffled out of the room again, she looked down at Harry. "Before I meet them I would like a quick word with you, Harry. If you'll come with me. ..."**

"What am I going to do?" She asked herself quietly a little curious

**Harry stood up, murmured "See you in a bit" to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, and followed Professor McGonagall back down the ward. The corridors outside were deserted and the only sound was the distant phoenix song. It was several minutes before Harry became aware that they were not heading for Professor McGonagall's office, but for Dumbledore's, and another few seconds before he realized that of course, she had been deputy headmistress, . . . Apparently she was now headmistress ... so the room behind the gargoyle was now hers.**

She smiled sadly at this. A few others smiled at this too.

**In silence they ascended the moving spiral staircase and entered the circular office. He did not know what he had expected: that the room would be draped in black, perhaps, or even that Dumbledore's body might be lying there. In fact, it looked almost exactly as it had done when he and Dumbledore had left it mere hours previously: the silver instruments whirring and puffing on their spindle legged tables, Gryffindor's sword in its glass case gleaming in the moonlight, the Sorting Hat on a shelf behind the desk, the Fawkes's perch stood empty, he was still crying his lament to the grounds. And a new portrait had joined the ranks of the dead headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts: Dumbledore was slumbering in a golden frame over the desk, his half-moon spectacle perched upon his crooked nose, looking peaceful and untroubled.**

Dumbledore smiled at the thought.

**After glancing once at this portrait, Professor McGonagall made an odd movement as though steeling herself, then rounded the' desk to look at Harry, her face taut and lined.**

**"Harry," she said, "I would like to know what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school."**

"He won't tell me" she sighed knowingly. If he wasn't going to tell people who were like parent's to him, he wasn't going to tell her.

**"I can't tell you that, Professor," said Harry. He had expected the question and had his answer ready. It had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told him that he was to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione.**

"You knew if he had to do it without you, they wouldn't let him do it alone." James told the table.

Dumbledore chuckled "Yes, well they to be a bit of a packable deal. Much like you three." He added to James, Remus and Sirius and they grinned to him.

**"Harry, it might be important," said Professor McGonagall.**

Remus chuckled and when they looked at him he told them "Well, McGonagall has never said a students name before, and she just called him Harry." They all realized that and smiled. Well obviously Dumbledore wasn't the only teacher Harry was close to. McGonagall was happy to hear this.

**"It is," said Harry, "very, but he didn't want me to tell anyone."**

**Professor McGonagall glared at him. "Potter" - Harry registered the renewed use of his surname – **

Everyone laughed."I must not use it often then." she decided and everyone agreed. They would have been awed at her doing this but it seems nothing Harry done would surprise them, anymore.

**"in the light of Professor Dumbledore's death, I think you must see that the situation has changed somewhat -"**

**"I don't think so," said Harry, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore never told me to stop following his orders if he died. But –"**

A few laughed at that randomly. Who would tell someone to stop following order's if he died. Then they laughed again _Dumbledore._

**"There's one thing you should know before the Ministry gets here, though. Madam Rosmerta's under the Imperius Curse, she was helping Malfoy and the Death Eaters, that's how the necklace and the poisoned mead -"**

Sirius gasped "Rosmerta?" he repeated in shock.

**"Rosmerta?" said Professor McGonagall incredulously, but before she could go on, there was a knock on the door behind them and Professors Sprout, Flitwick, and Slughorn traipsed into the room, followed by Hagrid, who was still weeping copiously, his huge frame trembling with grief.**

**"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"**

"You taught everyone Professor." Lily smiled and rolled her eyes a little.

**But before any of them could respond to this, a sharp voice spoke from high on the wall: A sallow-faced wizard with a short black fringe had just walked back into his empty canvas. "Minerva, the Minister will be here within seconds, he has just Disapparated from the Ministry."**

**"Thank you, Everard," said Professor McGonagall, and she turned quickly to her teachers.**

**"I want to talk about what happens to Hogwarts before he gets here," she said quickly. "Personally, I am not convinced that the school should reopen next year. The death of the headmaster at the hands of one of our colleagues is a terrible stain upon Hogwarts's history. It is horrible."**

"WHAT" everyone echod. They all looked at McGonagall

"Professor, you can't close Hogwarts." Lily exclaimed.

"Mrs. Potter, I'm not you're Professor anymore, you don't have to call me that no more." She said with a rare smile "This also hasn't happened to me yet, so I don't know what I'm going to do."

Lily still stared at her and kept repeating "But – but"

**"I am sure Dumbledore would have wanted the school to remain open," said Professor Sprout. "I feel that if a single pupil wants to come, then the school ought to remain open for that pupil."**

"Thank you. I wouldn't want my death, to stop pupil's getting education." Dumbledore added with a smile.

**"But will we have a single pupil after this?" said Slughorn, now dabbing his sweating brow with a silken handkerchief. "Parents will want to keep their children at home and I can't say I blame them. Personally, I don't think we're in more danger at Hogwarts than we are anywhere else, but you can't expect mothers to think like that. They'll want to keep their families together, it's only natural."**

**"I agree," said Professor McGonagall. "And in any case, it is not true to say that Dumbledore never envisaged a situation in which Hogwarts might close. When the Chamber of Secrets reopened he considered the closure of the school - and I must say that Professor Dumbledore's murder is more disturbing to me than the idea of Slytherin's monster living undetected in the bowels of the castle. . . "**

Everyone looked a little shocked McGonagall said, that was more disturbing. But it was true. They all shuddered.

**"We must consult the governors," said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice; he had a large bruise on his forehead but seemed otherwise unscathed by his collapse in Snape's office. "We must follow the established procedures. A decision should not be made hastily."**

**"Hagrid, you haven't said anything," said Professor McGonagall. "What are your views, ought Hogwarts to remain open?"**

**Hagrid, who had been weeping silently into his large, spotted handkerchief throughout this conversation, now raised puffy red eyes and croaked, "I dunno, Professor . . . that's fer the Heads of House an the headmistress ter decide ..."**

**"Professor Dumbledore always valued your views," said Professor McGonagall kindly, "and so do I."**

Everyone smiled "That was nice" Lily told her old Professer who was feeling a little strange reading about future self.

**"Well, I'm stayin," said Hagrid, fat tears still leaking out of the corners of his eyes and trickling down into his tangled beard. "It's me home, it's bin me home since I was thirteen. An' if there's kids who wan' me ter teach 'em, I'll do it. But... I dunno ... Hogwarts without Dumbledore .. ." He gulped and disappeared behind his handkerchief once more, and there was silence.**

"It does seem strange" Sirius responded "I mean, Sir, you were always there. I just don't know what it would be like without you."Most nodded in acknowledgement

**"Very well," said Professor McGonagall, glancing out of the window at the grounds, checking to see whether the Minister was yet approaching, "then I must agree with Filius that the right thing to do is to consult the governors, who will make the final decision.**

**"Now, as to getting students home . . . there is an argument for doing it sooner rather than later. We could arrange for the Hogwarts Express to come tomorrow if necessary -"**

**"What about Dumbledore's funeral?" said Harry, speaking at last.**

Everyone smiled sadly, they should have known it would be him to think about that.

**"Well. . ." said Professor McGonagall, losing a little of her briskness as her voice shook. "I - I know that it was Dumbledore's wish to be laid to rest here, at Hogwarts -"**

**"Then that's what'll happen, isn't it?" said Harry fiercely.**

Dumbledore signed a little. A part of him wanted to be at rest with his mother and sister but he didn't deserve that. So yes. Hogwarts would be where he should be.

**"If the Ministry thinks it appropriate," said Professor McGonagall. "No other headmaster or headmistress has ever been -"**

**"No other headmaster or headmistress ever gave more to this school," growled Hagrid.**

"Hagrid is a little defensive when it comes to you, Sir. Why is that?" Lily cocked her head to the side curiously

"I trusted him, when no one else would."

Everyone rolled their eyes when they heard Moody in the corner "Least something good came out of that."

**"Hogwarts should be Dumbledore's final resting place," said Professor Flitwick.**

**"Absolutely," said Professor Sprout.**

**"And in that case," said Harry, "you shouldn't send the students home until the funeral's over. They'll want to say -"**

**The last word caught in his throat, but Professor Sprout completed the sentence for him. "Good-bye."**

A few people around the table had tears rolling silently down their cheeks. It was just sad to think about this. Saying a final good-bye to Dumbledore was something they never thought they would need to do. He just seemed invincible. But they guessed no one was. Even if they wanted to be … and all their minds went to Voldemort and his Horcrux's.

**"Well said," squeaked Professor Flitwick. "Well said indeed! Our students should pay tribute, it is fitting. We can arrange transport home afterward."**

**"Seconded," barked Professor Sprout. **

**"I suppose ... yes .. ." said Slughorn in a rather agitated voice, while Hagrid let out a strangled sob of assent.**

**"He's coming," said Professor McGonagall suddenly, gazing down into the grounds. "The Minister . . . and by the looks of it. he's brought a delegation . . ."**

**"Can I leave, Professor?" said Harry at once.**

**He had no desire at all to see, or be interrogated by, Rufus Scrimgeour tonight.**

Everyone looked a little curious, they supposed their first meeting had already been.

**"You may," said Professor McGonagall. "And quickly."**

**She strode toward the door and held it open for him. He sped down the spiral staircase and off along the deserted corridor; he-had left his Invisibility Cloak at the top of the Astronomy Tower, but it did not matter; there was nobody in the corridors to see him pass, not even Filch, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves. He did not meet another soul until he turned into the passage leading to the Gryffindor common room.**

**"Is it true?" whispered the Fat Lady as he approached her. "It is really true? Dumbledore - dead?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**She let out a wail and, without waiting for the password, swung forward to admit him.**

Everyone sighed. Even the portraits were distressed.

**As Harry had suspected it would be, the common room was jam-packed. The room fell silent as he climbed through the portrait hole.**

"Everyone must know how close you two were" Lily moaned quietly

** He saw Dean and Seamus sitting in a group nearby: This meant that the dormitory must be empty, or nearly so. Without speaking to anybody, without making eye contact at all, Harry walked straight across the room and through the door to the boys' dormitories.**

**As he had hoped, Ron was waiting for him, still fully dressed, sitting on his bed. Harry sat down on his own four-poster and for a moment, they simply stared at each other.**

A few people were mopping their eyes with their sleeves.

**"They're talking about closing the school," said Harry.**

**"Lupin said they would," said Ron.**

**There was a pause.**

**"So?" said Ron in a very low voice, as though he thought the furniture might be listening in. "Did you find one? Did you get it? A - a Horcrux?"**

Everyone was feeling very tired. They were sure if it was this chapter or if they should all go to bed now. But they wanted the chapter to be other soon.

**Harry shook his head. All that had taken place around that black lake seemed like an old nightmare now; had it really happened, and only hours ago?**

"I wonder what had happened there" Lily asked a little curious, but then she realized she really didn't want to know. It was best left alone.

**"You didn't get it?" said Ron, looking crestfallen. "It wasn't there?"**

**"No," said Harry. "Someone had already taken it and left a fake in its place."**

**"Already taken - ?"**

**Wordlessly, Harry pulled the fake locket from his pocket, opened it, and passed it to Ron. The full story could wait. ... It did not matter tonight. . . nothing mattered except the end, the end of their pointless adventure, the end of Dumbledore's life. . . .**

The people who were crying, had tears in their eyes. Even Aberforth felt a little uneasy. He could feel tears forming but he knew they wouldn't fall.

**"R.A.B.," whispered Ron, "but who was that?"**

**"Dunno," said Harry, lying back on his bed fully clothed and staring blankly upwards. He felt no curiosity at all about R.A.B.: He doubted that he would ever feel curious again. As he lay there, he became aware suddenly that the grounds were silent. Fawkes had stopped singing. And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that little phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world . . . had left Harry.**

Lily and a lot of the other woman were racking with sobs. The only people in sight with dry eyes now, was Dumbledore and Moody. Dumbledore was happy to see his brother cared, he didn't like seeing him with tears in his eyes but it was nice to know he cared even if he didn't forgive. But Dumbledore couldn't blame him, he didn't even forgive himself. He thought he actually hated himself more than Aberforth hated him. But then he cleared his throat and told them to call a night. Everyone one went to bed. The headquarters had a room for all of them.


	14. The White Tomb

After a long day, yesterday. Everyone woke up a little late. Aberforth had someone take over his bar for a while. It was the summer holidays, so, Dumbledore and McGonagall don't need to be anywhere. And everyone else had delayed their plans. All to read this book. While everyone was having breakfast. A friendly chat had broke out among James, and Sirius "So, Padfoot, what do you think about Dora and Moony?"

Sirius had to smile, everytime this was mentioned, it was just too hard not to. He could imagine little Dora, getting told she would marry Moony in the future. He just couldn't picture her older than a nine year old. "I don't mind, as long as he treats her right, I'm fine. But I'm expecting a little bump – he made a small wave in the air – in the road. He isn't going to go in that easy." James nodded and asked Dumbledore when they were starting again

"We could start now, if you would like?" Everyone nodded. "Well, it seems we have a other chapter here." He smiled and showed them "This is my funeral" he muttered. _Now what's so important about this? _But he shook his head and began.

**All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed. Some students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents over the next couple of days - the Patil twins were gone before breakfast on the morning following Dumbledore's death and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. **

Most in the room nodded. They had expected a lot of parent's would want their children home.

**Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-blank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agreed that he could remain behind for the funeral.**

Lily smiled "Well, he must have been deteminded" a lot of people chuckled at this.

** She had difficulty in finding a bed in Hogsmeade, Seamus told Harry and Ron, for wizards and witches were pouring into the village, preparing to pay their last respects to Dumbledore. **

A lot of people signed, if they were still alive they would be there too. Dumbledore smiled but he didn't want a big thing. He just wanted a few people he cared about.

**Some excitement was caused among the younger students, who had never seen it before, when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palo-minos, came soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and landed on the edge of the Forest. Harry watched from a window as a gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descended the carriage steps and threw herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms.**

Sirius couldn't help himself "ohhhh" which earned a few laughs.

** Meanwhile a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister for Magic himself, was being accommodated within the castle. Harry was diligently avoiding contact with any of them; he was sure that, sooner or later, he would be asked again to account for Dumbledore's last excursion from Hogwarts. **

"He won't give them it, and too right. From what I've heard they are useless." Lily huffed, crossing her arms

**Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were spending all of their time together. The beautiful weather seemed to mock them; Harry could imagine how it would have been if Dumbledore had not died, and they had had this time together at the very end of the year, Ginny's examinations finished, the pressure of homework lifted ... and hour by hour, he put off saying the thing that he knew he must say, doing what he knew it was right to do, because it was too hard to forgot his best source of comfort. **

Lily frowned "This will be the chapter, they brake up." Everyone thought about it. _Yes, that would be a reasonable explination, about what he had just said there._

**They visited the hospital wing twice a day: Neville had been discharged, but Bill remained under Madam Pomfrey's care. His scars were as bad as ever; in truth, he now bore a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody, though thankfully with both eyes and legs, but in personality he seemed just the same as ever.**

Molly and Arther sighed in relief, at least that wouldn't change. They smiled to themselves _At least he's still the same boy he was. _

** All that appeared to have changed was that he now had a great liking for very rare steaks. **

This earned a few chuckles. Remus muttered under his breath "Count yourself luckly" Lily and James were the only ones that heard him though. They wanted to comfort him, but how? They couldn't.

**'... so eet ees lucky 'e is marrying me,' said Fleur happily, plumping up Bill's pillows, 'because ze British overcook their meat, I 'ave always said this.' **

Molly smiled. She did like this girl after all.

**'I suppose I'm just going to have to accept that he really is going to marry her,' sighed Ginny later that evening, as she, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat beside the open window of the Gryffindor common room, looking out over the twilit grounds, **

**'She's not that bad,' said Harry. 'Ugly, though,' he added hastily, as Ginny raised her eyebrows, and she let out a reluctant giggle. **

"Smooth, Harry" Lily giggled. That reminded her so much like James.

**'Well, I suppose if Mum can stand it, I can.' **

**'Anyone else we know died?' Ron asked Hermione, who was perusing the Evening Prophet. **

Everyone held their breath. _Too damn casual. _

**Hermione winced at the forced toughness in his voice. **

**'No,' she said reprovingly, folding up ihe newspaper. 'They're still looking for Snape, but no sign ...' **

**'Of course there isn't,' said Harry, who became angry every lime this subject cropped up. They won't find Snape till they find Voldemort, and seeing as they've never managed to do that in all this time ...' **

Frank sighed "The boy, has point." Everyone nodded in agreement.

**'I'm going to go to bed,' yawned Ginny. 'I haven't been sleeping that well since ... well ... I could do with some sleep.' **

**She kissed Harry (Ron looked away pointedly), **

Arther laughed at his son. Molly rolled her eyes but cooed at her daughter and Harry.

**waved at the other two and departed for the girls' dormitories. The moment the door had closed behind her, Hermione leaned forwards towards Harry with a most Hermione-ish look on her face. **

**'Harry, I found something out this morning, in the library ..,' **

James and Sirius shared a look, she sounded so like Moony and Lily "What a surprise"

**'R.A.B.?' said Harry, silling up straight. **

**He did not feel the way he had so often felt before, excited, curious, burning to get to the bottom of a mystery; he simply knew that the task of discovering the truth about the real Horcrux had to be completed before he could move a little further along the dark and winding path stretching ahead of him, the path that he and Dumbledore had set out upon together, and which he now knew he would have to journey alone. **

Everyone looked sad. After all he was all alone, even if he did have Ron and Hermione. It wasn't the same.

**There might still be as many as four Horcruxes out there somewhere and each would need to be found and eliminated before there was even a possibility that Voldemort could be killed. He kept reciting their names to himself, as though by listing them he could bring them within reach: 'the locket .., the cup ... the snake ... something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's ... the locket ... the cup ... the snake ... something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's ...' **

**This mantra seemed to pulse through Harry's mind as he fell asleep at night, and his dreams were thick with cups, lockets and mysterious objects that he could not quite reach, though Dumbledore helpfully offered Harry a rope ladder that turned to snakes the moment he began to climb ... **

"His dream's are so strange, even when he's not in Voldemort's head" Alice told the table, who completely agreed.

**He had shown Hermione the note inside the locket the morning after Dumbledore's death, and although she had not immediately recognised the initials as belonging to some obscure wizard about whom she had been reading, she had since been rushing off to the library a little more often than was strictly necessary for somebody who had no homework to do. **

**'No,' she said sadly, 'I've been trying, Harry, but I haven't found anything ... there are a couple of reasonably well-known wizards with those initials - Rosalind Antigone Bungs ... Rupert "Axebanger" Brookstanton ... but they don't seem to fit at all. Judging by that note, the person who stole the Horcrux knew Voldemort, and I can't find a shred of evidence that Bungs or Axebanger ever had anything to do with him**

Sirius thought about it again, it was unlikely, but his brother did know Voldemort. And right now his brother was dead. But no one knew how he died? What if that's it, what if that's why he died? Sirius knew it was unlikely but he liked the thought that his brother died on the good side, rather than the bad. After all; he was still his brother.

** ... no, actually, it's about ... well, Snape.' **

**She looked nervous even saying the name again. **

"Touchy subject?" James suggested

"Most likely" most people answered. They couldn't help but think Harry was right for that to be touchy. He had saw Snape kill Dumbledore. A man close to Harry, a man like family, a man he loved.

**'What about him?' asked Harry heavily, slumping back in his chair. **

**'Well, it's just that I was sort of right about the Half-Blood Prince business,' she said tentatively. **

Lily straighted up. _What has Severus have to do with them, now? How would they knew his nick-name. _She looked rather thoughtful. It took her a minute or two to notice everyone staring. But she just waved them off.

**'D'you have to rub it in, Hermione? How do you think i feel about that now?' **

**'No - no - Harry, I didn't mean that!' she said hastily, looking around to check that they were not being overheard. 'It's just that I was right about Eileen Prince once owning the book. You see ... she was Snape's mother!' **

"Snape's the half-blood prince" James groaned. Now knowing why Lily looked so thoughtful. She would know his nick-name, after all; she was his best friend.

**I thought she wasn't much of a looker,' said Ron. Hermione ignored him. **

Sirius and James started laughing, then Remus chuckled. A few people smiled at the comment too.

**'I was going through the rest of the old Prophets and there was a tiny announcement about Eileen Prince marrying a man called Tobias Snape, and then later an announcement saying that she'd given birth to a -' **

**'- murderer,' spat Harry. **

"Good title" Sirius mumbled darkly.

**'Well ... yes,' said Hermione. 'So ... I was sort of right. Snape must have been proud of being "half a Prince", you see? Tobias Snape was a Muggle from what it said in the Prophet' **

**'Yeah, that fits,' said Harry. 'He'd play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them ... he's just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Muggle father ... ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name - Lard Voldemort - the Half-Blood Prince – **

"As much as I'd like to say that's true. It's not. He wasn't ashamed of his parentage because his father was a muggle." She muttered darkly but everyone heard the sadness and pity. They didn't comment but they all wondered what she was talking about.

**how could Dumbledore have missed -?' **

**He broke off, looking out of the window. He could not stop himself dwelling upon Dumbledore's inexcusable trust in Snape ... but as Hermione had just inadvertently reminded him, he, Harry, had been taken in just the same ... in spite of the increasing nastiness of those scribbled spells, he had refused to believe ill of the boy who had been so clever, who had helped him so much ... Helped him ... it was an almost unendurable thought, now ... **

"What is he talking about?" Sirius asked Lily. Knowing she was the only person at the table who would know.

She looked a little thoughtful for a moment and stated "I think; it might be Severus's old potions book. He liked to write a lot of spells, inside it. It would explain how they all know some of his invented spells. Harry must have found the book and be using it. Not knowing who the 'Half-blood Prince' was." Everyone understood.

**'I still don't get why he didn't turn you in for using that book,' said Ron. 'He must've known where you were getting it all from.' **

**'He knew,' said Harry bitterly. 'He knew when I used Secumsempra. He didn't really need Legilimency ... he might even have known before then, with Slughom talking about how brilliant I was at Potions ... shouldn't have left his old book in the bottom of that cupboard, should he?' **

Lily sighed heavily, making some look at her, "I can't believe he used Secumsempra, that's a really dark spell. The darkest Severus ever made I think." Some shook their heads. People shouldn't make spells like that.

"But Harry's right, he shouldn't leave his old book at the bottom of a cupboard, if it had stuff like that." Alice pointed out

**'But why didn't he turn you in?' **

**'I don't think he wanted to associate himself with that book,' said Hermione. 'I don't think Dumbledore would have liked it very much if he'd known. And even if Snape pretended it hadn't been his, Slughom would have recognised his writing at once. Anyway, the book was left in Snape's old classroom, and I'll bet Dumbledore knew his mother was called "Prince".' **

"So _Snape_ was a potions teacher. Intresting" Sirius sneered.

**I should've shown the book to Dumbledore,' said Harry. 'All that time he was showing me how Voldemort was evil even when he was at school, and I had proof Snape was, too -' **

**'"Evil" is a strong word,' said Hermione quietly. **

**'You were the one who kept telling me the book was dangerous!' **

"So I guess, there were a lot of things that happened over this _book_?" James said putting enphises on the last word. "There he goes again. Making more life's miserable. With his near existence." He added bitterly. Lily's bottom lip trembled again. She agreed but she still felt a place for her best friend, she just wanted that friend back.

**'I'm trying to say, Harry, that you're pulling too much blame on yourself. I thought the Prince seemed to have a nasty sense of humour, but I would never have guessed he was a potential killer ...' **

**'None of us could've guessed Snape would ... you know,' said Ron. **

"I could" James responded harshly.

**Silence fell between them, each of them lost in their own thoughts, but Harry was sure that they, like him, were thinking about the following morning, when Dumbledore's body would be laid to rest.**

**Harry had never attended a funeral before; there had been no body to bury when Sirius had died. **

Everyone looked a little thoughtful. Why was that? What happened to his body? Sirius was actually a little worried with that sentence. What happened to him.

**He did not know what to expect and was a little worried about what he might see, about how he would feel. He wondered whether Dumbledore's death would be more real to him once the funeral was over. Though he had moments when the horrible fact of it threatened to overwhelm him, there were blank stretches of numbness where, despite the fact that nobody was talking about anything else in the whole castle, he still found it difficult to believe that Dumbledore had really gone. **

"You'll be ok Harry, you're strong; you'll get though this." Lily sniffed back tears. Everyone was fighting there own, so they didn't respond to her.

**Admittedly he had not, as he had with Sirius, looked desperately for some kind of loophole, some way that Dumbledore would come back ... he felt in his pocket for the cold chain of the fake Horcrux, which he now carried with him everywhere, not as a talisman, but as a reminder of what it had cost and what remained still to do. **

Everyone sighed at the reminder. What a waste.

**Harry rose early to pack the next day; the Hogwarts Express would be leaving an hour after the funeral. Downstairs he found the mood in the Great Hall subdued. Everybody was wearing their dress robes and no one seemed very hungry. Professor McGonagall had left the thronelike chair in the middle of the staff table empty. Hagrid's chair was deserted too: Harry thought that perhaps he had not been able to face breakfast; but Snape's place had been unceremoniously filled by Rufus Scrimgeour. Harry avoided his yellowish eyes as they scanned the Hall; Harry had the uncomfortable feeling that Scrimgeour was looking for him. Among Scrimgeour's entourage Harry spotted the red hair and horn-rimmed glasses of Percy Weasley. Ron gave no sign that he was aware of Percy, apart from stabbing pieces of kipper with unwonted venom. **

Everyone looked suspicious. Apparently no one talked to Percy and he was at the Ministry. But why? Molly and Arther would never abandone there children, no matter what. So of course. This was something to do with Percy's choice. _What have you done Percy? _Molly and Arther thought sadly.

**Over at the Slytherin table Crabbe and Goyle were muttering together. Hulking boys though they were, they looked oddly lonely without the tall, pale figure of Malfoy between them, bossing them around. **

"So, he's the boss boy, now." James said darkly. He hadn't thought about what Malfoy and his son were like to each other.

**Harry had not spared Malfoy much thought. His animosity was all for Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy's voice on that Tower top, northe fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived. Harry did not believe that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore. **

"He was order to kill me" Dumbledore mentioned in a matter-of-factly voice. Everyone once again thought the same thought, only for a different boy this time _Poor boy._

**He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike. **

"It seems like they don't get along at all then, to be honest. It sounds like you two and Severus." Lily told the two boy at her side. They rolled their eyes but they thought about it too, if you took away the 'pity' part, to the description.

**Where, Harry wondered, was Malfoy now, and what was Voldemort making him do under threat of killing him and his parents? **

They shook their heads. They felt so sorry for this boy, and for Harry. The fates they suffered. What they had to do, either because they were threated or because they had the whole world was depending on them. The two boy's not even of age. And this is what they need to do. _I wish I could help_ most of the room muttered. But they couldn't, because most of them were dead … all because of the same man, threating these two boy's lifes.

**Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a nudge in the ribs from Ginny. Professor McGonagall had risen to her feet and the mournful hum in the Hall died away at once. **

**'It is nearly time,' she said. 'Please follow your Heads of House out into the grounds. Gryffindors, after me.' **

Everyone bowed their heads, and listened to Dumbledore as he described his own funeral.

**They filed out from behind their benches in near silence. Harry glimpsed Slughorn at the head of the Slytherin column, wearing magnificent long emerald-green robes embroidered with silver. He had never seen Professor Sprout, Head of the Hufflepuffs, looking so clean; there was not a single patch on her hat, and when they reached the Entrance Hall, they found Madam Pince standing beside Filch, she in a thick black veil that fell to her knees, he in an ancient black suit and tie reek-ing of mothbails. **

Some looked digusted with that description of Filch and Madam Pince.

**They were heading, as Harry saw when he stepped out on to the stone steps from the front doors, towards the lake. The warmth of the sun caressed his face as they followed Professor McGonagall in silence to the place where hundreds of chairs had been set out in rows. An aisle ran down the centre of them: there was a marble table standing at the front, all chairs facing it. It was the most beautiful summer's day. **

Mostly everyone smiled. It was nice to hear this. This was the perfect day, for Dumbledore to be put to rest.

**An extraordinary assortment of people had already settled into half of the chairs: shabby and smart, old and young. Most Harry did not recognise, but there were a few that he did, including members of the Order of the Phoenix: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink, Remus Lupin, with whom she seemed to be holding hands,**

Most of the room smiled. Remus blushed but never said anything.

** Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill supported by Fleur and followed by Fred and George, who were wearing jackets of black dragonskin. Then there was Madame Maxime, who took up two-and-a-half chairs on her own, Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron, Arabella Figg, Harry's Squib neighbour, the hairy bass player from the wizard group the Weird sissters, Ernie Frang, driver of the Knight Bus, Madam Malkin, of the robe shop in Diagon Alley, and some people whom Harry merely knew by sight, such as the barman of the Hog's Head **

A few chuckled "He doesn't know you're brothers."

Dumbledore wasn't paying attention though, he was only looking at his brother, smiling. "You went" he stated but it sounded more like a question.

Aberforth rolled his eyes. "You're still my brother Albus" This made Dumbledore smile even more. It was nice to know his brother was present at his funeral. _I wish this had been the first funeral he had attended. _He added mentally. He knew his brother had only attended thee funeral – including his – which had been his mother and sister. _The wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for me._ But he pushed the thoughts away and continued to read.

**and the witch who pushed the trolley on the Hogwarts Express. The castle ghosts were there too, barely visible in the bright sunlight, discernible only when they moved, shimmering insubstantially in the gleaming air. **

**Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny filed into seats at the end of a row beside the lake. People were whispering to each other; it sounded like a breeze in the grass, but the birdsong was louder by far. The crowd continued to swell; with a great rush of affection for both of them, Harry saw Neville being helped into a seat by Luna. **

Alice and Frank smiled at the thought of this girl.

**They alone of all the DA had responded to Hermione's summons the night that Dumbledore had died, and Harry knew why: they were the ones who had missed the DA most ... probably the ones who had checked their coins regularly in the hope that there would be another meeting ... **

"What's the DA?" most muttered around the table. No one knew.

**Cornelius Fudge walked past them towards the front rows, his expression miserable, twirling his green bowler hat as usual; Harry next recognised Rita Skeeter, who, he was infuriated to see, had a notebook clutched in her red-takmed hand; and then, with a worse jolt of fury, Dolores Umbridge, an unconvincing expression of grief upon her toadlike face, a black velvet bow set atop her iron-coloured curls. **

"Who is she?" Most muttered to the person beside them. She hadn't been mentioned before, but it was obvious Harry hated her.

**At the sight of the centaur Firenze, who was standing like a sentinel near the water's edge, she gave a start and scurried hastily into a seat a good distance away. **

**The staff were seated at last. Harry could see Scrimgeour looking grave and dignified in the front row with Professor McGonagall. He wondered whether Scrimgeour or any of these important people were really sorry that Dumbledore was dead**

"Most likely not." Dumbledore said with a smile. He didn't care about him. He only cared about those close to him. He was happy about who was there.

**and he forgot his dislike of the Ministry in looking around for the source of it. He was not the only one: many heads were turning, searching, a little alarmed. **

**'In there,' whispered Ginny in Harry's ear. **

**And he saw them in the clear green sunlit water, inches below the surface, reminding him horribly of the Inferi;**

A few looked alarmed. "What was he doing around Inferi" Lily asked trying very hard to keep her voice steady but it shook a little at the end. Everyone didn't look at her. They were waiting for an explosion, but she was so upset to shout.

** a chorus of merpeople singing in a strange language he did not understand, their pallid faces rippling, their purplish hair flowing all around them. The music made the hair on Harry's neck stand up and yet it was not unpleasant. It spoke very clearly of loss and of despair. As he looked down into the wild faces of the singers he had the feeling that they, at least, were sorry for Dumbledore's passing. Then Ginny nudged him again and he looked round. **

**Hagrid was walking slowly up the aisle between the chairs. He was crying quite silently, his face gleaming with tears, and in his arms, wrapped in purple velvet spangled with golden stars, was what Harry knew to be Dumbledore's body. A sharp pain rose in Harry's throat at this sight: for a moment, the strange music and the knowledge that Dumbledore's body was so close seemed to take all warmth from the day. **

All the woman had tears running down their faces. All the men looked pained. Aberforth couldn't help but think _Just me left. All of you are gone. Mum, Dad, Ariana, even you Albus. _He felt like crying but he couldn't, he'd be strong.

**Ron looked white and shocked. Tears were falling thick and fast into both Ginny and Hermione's laps. **

**They could not see clearly what was happening at the front. Hagrid seemed to have placed the body carefully upon the table. Now he retreated down the aisle, blowing his nose with loud trumpeting noises that drew scandalised looks from some, including, Harry saw, Dolores Umbridge ... but Harry knew that Dumbledore would not have cared.**

"You know me well, young Harry" Dumbledore said with a – himself – couldn't bring himself not be happy, if wasn't because of the funeral, it was because of who was there. It was all perfect.

** He tried to make a friendly gesture to Hagrid as he passed, but Hagrid's eyes were so swollen it was a wonder he could see where he was going. Harry glanced at the back row to which Hagrid was heading and realised what was guiding him, for there, dressed in a jacket and trousers each the size of a small marquee, was the giant Grawp, **

Everyone's eyes widened. So this was the giant Harry knew.

**his great ugly boulder-like head bowed, docile, almost human. Hagrid sat down next to his half-brother and Grawp patted Hagrid hard on the head, so that his chair legs sank into the ground.**

Everyone chuckled, "wow, Hagrid has a half-brother who's a giant." Sirius grinned a little dazed. He was very fond of Hagrid and it sounds like his brother was nice aswell.

** Harry had a wonderful momentary urge to laugh. But then the music stopped and he turned to face the front again. **

**A little tufty-haired man in plain black robes had got to his feet and stood now in front of Dumbledore's body. Harry could not hear what he was saying. Odd words floated back to them over the hundreds of beads. 'Nobility of spirit' ... 'intellectual contribution' ... 'greatness of heart' ... it did not mean very much. It had little to do with Dumbledore as Harry had known him. He suddenly remembered Dumbledore's idea of a few words: 'nitwit', 'oddment', 'blubber' and 'tweak, and again, had to suppress a grin ... what was the matter with him? **

Everyone chuckled again, "Yes. Young Harry. I would have used those words, and nothings the matter, you're just looking on the bright side. That's a good things, you're looking at things in a positive way. The way I would have wanted you too." Dumbledore said in a calmed voice. Everyone nodded with him.

**There was a soft splashing noise to his left and he saw that the merpeople had broken the surface to listen, too. He remembered Dumbledore crouching at the water's edge two years ago, very close to where Harry now sat, and conversing in Mermish with the Merchieftainess. Harry wondered where Dumbledore had learned Mermish. There was so much he had never asked him, so much he should have said ... **

Frank sighed "Yes, that happens a lot, when you lose someone, you think of all the things you wished you'd have said." He was thinking about his father. The things he wished he'd have said to him.

**And then, without warning, it swept over him, the dreadful truth, more completely and undeniably than it had until now. Dumbledore was dead, gone ... he clutched the cold locket in his hand so tightly that it hurt, but he could not prevent hot tears spilling from his eyes: **

Lily and Molly were sobbing in to their husbands now. This was so sad. _He's lost too many. _The repeated the thought they had thought a lot thought these books _He's just a boy._

**he looked away from Ginny and the others and stared out over the lake, towards the Forest, as the little man in black droned on ... there was movement among the trees. The centaurs had come to pay their respects, too. They did not move into the open but Harry saw them standing quite still, half-hidden in shadow, watching the wiz-ards, their bows hanging at their sides. And Harry remembered his first nightmarish trip into the Forest, the first time he had ever encountered the thing that was then Voldemort, **

Everyone looked a little alarmed. Voldemort, was in the Forest.

**and how he had faced him, and how he and Dumbledore had discussed fighting a losing battle not long thereafter. It was important, Dumbledore said, to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated... **

Dumbledore smiled at this piece of advice.

**And Harry saw very clearly as be sal there under the hot sun bow people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over.**

Dumbledore, Sirius, Lily and James all sighed. They were gone now, and they couldn't protect this boy, who they quite obviously all loved. _Oh how I wish I was there _they all thought. But they weren't. None of them. They were never there when the boy need them.

** He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon for ever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one: that the shelter of a parent's arms meant that nothing could hurt him. **

"That should be true. But sadly, in this case. It's not." James moaned bitterly. This is all Voldemort's fault, all of it.

**There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died and he was more alone than he had ever been before. **

Lily sobbed more than before. Her baby boy was all alone. When she saw him next, she would promise him, that even if she wasn't visable. She was going to be there. Always.

**The little man in black had stopped speaking at last and resumed his seat. Harry waited for somebody else to get to their feet; he expected speeches, probably from the Minister, but nobody moved. **

**Then several people screamed. Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. In its place was a white marble tomb, encasing Dumbledore's body and the table on which he had rested. **

**There were a few more cries of shock as a shower of arrows soared through the air, but they fell far short of the crowd. It was, Harry knew, the centaurs' tribute: he saw them turn tail and disappear back into the cool trees. Likewise the merpeople sank slowly back into the green water and were lost from view. **

Dumbledore was touched at how many people cared, but he knew, deep down it wasn't personally him, they cared about. It was what he could do or what he had done. Just like most people and Harry.

**Harry looked at Ginny, Ron and Hermione: Ron's face was screwed up as though the sunlight was blinding him. Hermione's face was glazed with tears, but Ginny was no longer crying. She met Harry's gaze with the same hard, blazing look that he had seen when she had hugged him after winning the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he knew that at that moment they understood each other perfectly, and that when he told her what he was going to do now, she would not say 'Be careful', or 'Don't do it', but accept his decision, because she would not have expected anything less of him. And so he steeled himself to say what he had known he must say ever since Dumbledore had died. **

Most sighed, knowing exactly what this was.

**'Ginny, listen ...' he said very quietly, as the buzz of con-versation grew louder around them and people began to get to their feet. 'I can't be involved with you any more. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together.' **

"Just tactless, I'm telling you … no one has tact these days" Sirius obverved shaking his head. Most people all smiled, trust Sirius to say something like that, and the funniest bit was they knew he was being serious.

**She said, with an oddly twisted smile, 'It's for some stupid, noble reason, isn't it?' **

**'It's been like ... like something out of someone else's life, these last few weeks with you,' said Harry. 'But i can't ... we can't ... I've got things to do alone now.' **

_He can't even have a normal life with a freaking girl _Sirius was screaming in his own head furiously, with was his Godson's life turns out to be. That wasn't what they all had planned. They all had a life for this little guy planned out, and none of this was it.

**She did not cry, she simply looked at him, **

**'Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you're my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you.' **

Most hung their heads, they all knew that was true. That didn't mean they had to agree. This was one of the worst things Harry had to do. _Give up the only normal bit of life he's ever had. _They complained mentally.

**'What if I don't care?' said Ginny fiercely. **

**'I care,' said Harry. 'How do you think I'd feel if this was your funeral ... and it was my fault ...' **

Molly started shaking with sobs for a girl who wasn't even born yet. She didn't want to think about her own little girl's funeral.

**She looked away from him, over the lake. **

**I never really gave up on you,' she said. 'Not really. I always hoped ... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more - myself.' **

Most smiled. Ginny must have liked Harry for a long time.

**'Smart girl, that Hermione,' said Harry, trying to smile. 'I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages ... months ... years maybe ...' **

**'But you've been too busy saving the wizarding world,' said Ginny, half-laughing. 'Well ... I can't say I'm surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much.' **

Everyone looked a little confused. How can that make you like someone? They just shoke their heads and decided not to think about it.

**Harry could not bear to hear these things, nor did he think his resolution would hold if he remained sitting beside her. Ron, he saw, was now holding Hermione and stroking her hair while she sobbed into his shoulder, tears dripping from the end of his own long nose. With a miserable gesture, Harry got up, turned his back on Ginny and on Dumbledore's tomb and walked away around the lake. Moving felt much more bearable than sitting still: just as setting out as soon as possible to track down the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort would feel better than waiting to do it ... **

**'Harry!' **

**He turned. Rufus Scrimgeour was limping rapidly towards him around the bank, leaning on his walking stick. **

"Oh no. He doesn't" Lily cried out furiously. If this man, even thought about talking bad to Harry right now, when he was in this state. Oh.

**'I've been hoping to have a word ... do you mind if I walk a little way with you?' **

**'No,' said Harry indifferently, and set off again. **

**'Harry, this was a dreadful tragedy,' said Scrimgeour quietly, 'I cannot tell you how appalled I was to hear of it. Dumbledore was a very great wizard. We had our disagreements, as you know, but no one knows better than I -' **

**What do you want?' asked Harry flatly. **

"Thank you Harry" Lily began "Don't let him work his way in."

**Scrimgeour looked annoyed but, as before, hastily modified his expression to one of sorrowful understanding. **

"Don't try it" James muttered tapping the table furiously.

**'You are, of course, devastated,' he said. 'I know that you were very close to Dumbledore. I think you may have been his favourite ever pupil. The bond between the two of you -' **

"Oh will you just shut up, and get to the point." Sirius yelled agitated. Harry didn't need any one to tell him this, he already knew. Everyone looked a little angry aswell. Harry was already in a terrible state. He didn't need him.

**'What do you want?' Harry repeated, coming to a halt. **

**Scrimgeour stopped too, leaned on his stick and stared at Harry, his expression shrewd now. **

**'The word is that you were with him when he left the school the night that he died.' **

**'Whose word?' said Harry. **

Everyone was shaking there heads at the Minister in disbelief. You didn't just ask someone who was 'very close to Dumbledore' what happened the night he died.

**'Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died. There were also two broomsticks up there. The Ministry can add two and two, Harry.' **

**'Glad to hear it,' said Harry. 'Well, where I went with Dumbledore and what we did is my business. He didn't want people to know.' **

Dumbledore smiled. He really liked Harry. Everyone else had fond smiles too.

**'Such loyalty is admirable, of course,' said Scrimgeour, who seemed to be restraining his irritation with difficulty, 'but Dumbledore is gone, Harry. He's gone.' **

"Will you shut up!" Alice cried out. She had tears falling down her cheek, but not for her. For Harry. Everyone look monsterous. You don't tell a grieving person that. _I wish I could tell you that, after you lost someone minister _Sirius thought to himself. The Ministry in the future was a comlete wreck.

**'He will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him,' said Harry, smiling in spite of himself. **

Dumbldore smile to himself. That must be a other quote he said to Harry. Everyone either smiled or chuckled a little. That sounded so Dumbledore-ish.

**'My dear boy ... even Dumbledore cannot return from the-' **

**'I am not saying he can. You wouldn't understand. But I've got nothing to tell you.' **

"Just get rid of him"

**Scrimgeour hesitated, then said, in what was evidently supposed to be a tone of delicacy, "The Ministry can offer you all sorts of protection, you know, Harry. I would be delighted to place a couple of my Aurors at your service -' **

**Harry laughed. **

**'Voldemort wants to kill me himself and Aurors won't stop him. So thanks for the offer, but no thanks.' **

Everyone sighed at how true that statement was. Voldemort was determind. They wouldn't admit it but they were a little surprised the boy had lived this long.

**'So,' said Scrimgeour, his voice cold now, 'the request I made of you at Christmas -' **

**'What request? Oh yeah ... the one where I tell the world what a great job you're doing in exchange for —' **

**'- for raising everyone's morale!' snapped Scrimgeour. **

**Harry considered him for a moment. **

**'Released Stan Shunpike yet?' **

"Who's that?" most muttered, no one knew.

**Scrimgeour turned a nasty purple colour highly reminiscent of Uncle Vernon. **

**'I see you are still -' **

**'Dumbledore's man through and through,' said Harry. 'That's right.' **

Everyone smiled this time. Harry was so loyle. Especially to Dumbledore. Dumbledore chuckled to himself, it seemed he was Harry's man through and through too.

**Scrimgeour glared at him for another moment, then turned and limped away without another word. Harry could see Percy and the rest of the Ministry delegation waiting for him, casting nervous glances at the sobbing Hagrid and Grawp, who were still in their seats. Ron and Hermione were hurry-ing towards Harry, passing Scrimgeour going in the opposite direction; Harry turned and walked slowly on, waiting for them to catch up, which they finally did in the shade of a beech tree under which they had sat in happier times. **

Lily was now wiping her eyes. James wished so much, that he there. For his little boy.

**"What did Scrimgeour want?' Hermione whispered. **

**'Same as he wanted at Christmas,' shrugged Harry. 'Wanted me to give him inside information on Dumbledore and be the Ministry's new poster boy.' **

Everyone laughed dispite the situation at what Harry called himself.

**Ron seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, then he said loudly to Hermione, 'Look, let me go back and hit Percy!' **

Everyone all looked at each other. What the heck that Percy done.

**'No,' she said firmly, grabbing his arm. **

**'It'll make me feel better!' **

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, probably. But it wouldn't look good, in front of all these people.

**Harry laughed. Even Hermione grinned a little, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle. **

**'I can't bear the idea that we might never come back.' she said softly. 'How can Hogwarts close?' **

**'Maybe it won't,' said Ron. 'We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Everywhere's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d'you reckon, Harry?' **

**'I'm not coming back even if it does reopen,' said Harry. **

**Ron gaped at him, but Hermione said sadly, 'I knew you were going to say that. But then what will you do?"**

"She knew" James whispered sadly. She knew her best friend was going to go risk his neck.

**'I'm going back to the Dursleys' once more, because Dumbledore wanted me to,' said Harry. 'But it'll be a short visit, and then I'll be gone for good.' **

**'But where will you go if you don't come back to school?' **

**'I thought I might go back to Godric's Hollow,' Harry muttered. He had had the idea in his head ever since the night of Dumbledore's death. 'For me, it started there, all of it. I've just got a feeling I need to go there. And I can visit my parents' graves, I'd like that.' **

Everyone looked sad then James pointed something out "He's never been to our graves before, that's why he was so upset when he thought about Dumbledore walking past it, and never telling him" he was jealous. Everyone nodded. The boy, who was seventeen had never seen his parent's graves who had died sixteen years before.

**'And then what?' said Ron. **

**Then I've got to track down the rest of the Horcruxes, haven't I?' said Harry, his eyes upon Dumbledore's white tomb, reflected in the water on the other side of the lake. "That's what he wanted me to do, that's why he told me all about them. If Dumbledore was right - and I'm sure he was -there are still four of them out there. I've got to find them and destroy them and then I've got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit that's still in his body, and I'm the one who's going to kill him. And if I meet Severus Snape along the way,' he added, 'so much better tor me, so much the worse for him.' **

"Everyone looked at each other, they hoped he didn't meet Severus. No because they cared for him, but they cared for Harry. And meeting him would do more damage than good.

**There was a long silence. The crowd had almost disappered now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water. **

Everyone lost in thought for a moment. They didn't know what they would feel, if they were at that funeral.

**'We'll be there, Harry,' said Ron. **

**'What?' **

**At your aunt and uncle's house,' said Ron. 'And then we'll go with you, wherever you're going.' **

**'No -' said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone. **

They all muttered 'no' he needed them, not just for help, but for comfort. He needed them with him.

**'You said to us once before,' said Hermione quietly, 'that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?' **

They all smiled at the loyalty showen. They didn't know how long it was since Harry said that but, even now they were with him. Until the end. They all thought the thing they were terrified to say aloud. _When is the end? Is it soon? Will it be sooner for Harry? _The answerers they wanted were soon, yes, no. but they knew it was most likely the other way around.

**'We're with you whatever happens,' said Ron. 'But, mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow.' **

**'Why?' **

**'Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?' **

**Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful. **

A few laughed. "Yes, I know. But somehow that didn't even turn out normal." Arther said tuting a little.

**'Yeah, we shouldn't miss that,' he said finally. **

**His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.**

Everyone smiled. He had one last day. And he knew it, he was going to use it. "Well sir, can you read the next please?" Lily asked a little impatient, she wanted to know what was so good about her son. Other than the obvious.


	15. Keeper Of Keys

Everyone smiled. He had one last day. And he knew it, he was going to use it. "Well sir, can you read the next please?" Lily asked a little impatient, she wanted to know what was so good about her son. Other than the obvious.

He looked at the chapter title and laughed a little "You're son's eleven, in this." They both smiled and nodded, this would be the year he went to Hogwarts.

**BOOM. **

Everyone all looked startled. _Not yet. Please not yet_. They all thought together

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

Lily giggled despite herself.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"He has a rifle, in front of two children." She screeched. Hardly anyone in the room knew what a rifle was, but judging from Lily's outburst, it wasn't good.

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then - SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

Lily stared wide-eyed. But Remus and a few others rememeber what Harry had said in one of the chapters about Hagrid breaking down the door. He thought this was that time.

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

Everyone who didn't know let out a breathe. _It's only Hagrid. _

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

Everyone burst out laughing. Trust Hagrid, to break down the door, and then asked for a cup a tea.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

Everyone laughed harder.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

Lily and James smiled at their mention.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**"I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

"Oh, thank Merlin, that's out of the way" and she let out a breath of relief.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

Lily cooed "Thank you Hagrid. That's so nice of him" Everyone agreed, Hagrid was the best.

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

A few laughed, "Yeah, I think I'd say the same if that just happened to me."

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

The people who had met Hagrid muttered "I hate when he does that" but Dumbledore just chuckled.

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

Sirius starting howling with laughter, "he shouldn't be aloud drink"

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. **

Some people sat open mouthed, "He has all of that, in his pockets?" Alice said quietly.

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

Everyone laughed this time, Typical Hagrid.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

"Good, manners" Lily whispered to herself approviling, Only James heard and his mouth twitch.

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

"Wait, a moment? Did he not know?" James asked everyone

Lily huffed out angrily. "Of course, not, Petunia wouldn't have told him."

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"Why's he saying sorry? He's got nothing to be sorry about" Sirius asked everyone

"Something tells me, you don't want to know" Lily muttered darkly. Which everyone looked at her, What was she talking about?

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

"They were keeping everything from him then" James moaned while rubbing his head.

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

"That's what the stinking things deserve" Sirius couldn't help but say

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

Lily burst out laughing despite the situation. When everyone looked at her she said "Sorry, it's a muggle thing"

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

"I would too." Most said outloud

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

_Serves him right_ most thought

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

"Really?" Lily and James commented surprised.

Everyone else was surpised too. _Why is Lily and James famous? _Something told them, it wasn't good.

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

"No, we don't. So can you tell us … now" James argued impatiently.

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

Lily finially snapped "Oh, just shut up Dursley."

** braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

"Probably burned that letter" Lily said knowingly. She had only met Vernon once, but that seems like something he would do.

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

"Drama queen" Remus said under his breath, but James heard him and gave a small chuckle

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."**

Sirius put his hands up and nearly yelled "again with the tact … seriously people." Most people just told him to shut up.

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

"Where in Merlin's name, are they?" Alice asked

**"- a what?" gasped Harry.**

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"And he is a good wizard," James pointed out proudly. Everyone had to agree from what they have heard about him.

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

Everyone looked at each other, _Really? _They thought in union.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

Remus and Lily let out breathes of awe together. Which made a few people smile.

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few** **minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Are you joking?" Frank snorted, a few others shook their heads fondly.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl –**

Alice was more than amazed "In his pocket" she whispered a few times to Frank

** a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

"Impressive, I can't even read it upright" McGonagall reported to the table. While some nodded in understanding.

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

Remus rolled his eyes "Only Hagrid, could do a letter like that"

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"It is normal, and what's a telephone?" James asked Lily

"It's not normal for muggles, and it's how people connected each other." She replied patting his arm.

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

"Exactly" Sirius said. He had nothing against Muggles, but he hated these ones

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"I doubt Harry has any luck at all, I mean look what his life is like?" Frank corrected

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

"You can't stamp magic out." Aberforth said dangeriously low. Everyone looked at him shocked "Magic should be stamped out, it can lead to very bad problems." No one dared asked him, how he knew.

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? **

"It's so nice, to know I'm loved" Lily resorted sarcastically.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. **

Lily looked puzzled "I have done that,"

**I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"She was" Lily said matter-of-factly.

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

Everyone froze, what did she mean blown up. "How dare she, say that to a eleven year old boy about his parents" Lily screeched horrified at her sister. How could she do that. _I hate you Petunia, I really do. _

"Do you think we will find out how we died?" James asked a like weakly, most just shrugged. Still in shock at what Lily's sister had just said.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

"They told him, what?" James whispered dangeriously,

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin'**

**His own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

Lily suddenly sat up straight, "We are going to hear about why he's so special." Everyone looked much more alert; they were going to hear what was extra special about this boy, other than the obvious.

"Every kid knows his name" Sirius boasted, a little impressed. He got a few glares because of that.

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

"Come on," Lily said bouncing on her seat impatently.

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

"He's not in your world, just now Hagrid," Alice advised sadly.

**"Who? "**

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." **

"Harry's fine with it." Most muttered.

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

"C'mon Hagrid" James encouraged.

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. " Hagrid shuddered. **

Dumbledore smiled "Well done, Hagrid,"

**"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

"Least we know, he won't try that anytime soon" Frank mentioned happily.

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

_Too freaking right_ both thought.

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

Everyone stiffened. What this about. Then they remembered _Lily and James will die soon. _

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

"Thank you Hagrid" Lily said through the tears now rolling down her cheeks.

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. **

"Wow" everyone said, a little terrified and awed at the same time.

"No wonder, Voldemort's determinded to kill him" Alice blurted out.

**No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, **

Everyone stared at Marlene, her eyes wide open. No one knew what to say to her. She was going to die, sooner that the Potters.

**the Bones, the Prewetts**

Molly started sobbing at the mention of her brothers.

** - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

Most shoke their heads, they would never have suspected that.

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before – **

Everyone gasped and looked at each other horrified, but how … he was only a baby, he shouldn't remember that. Lily was sobbing harder than before. Her little boy was going to see her die.

**and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

Everyone shuddered at that.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

"sadly" most muttered

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured –**

"You dare" James said though gritted teeth. A lot of other people were feeling the same.

** and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion – **

Sirius looked like he was about to explode with angry.

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

"Do it Hagrid, Do it." Sirius encouraged though narrowed eyes.

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"So he didn't say it at first?" Frank asked table

"Most likely, he didn't want to upset Hagrid." Dumbledore informed him.

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

"Ok, I can see, why now. If he disappeared that night, everyone will think Harry can finish him off when he did come back, I bet they don't even know about Prophcey, they just think Harry can do it, because he's done it before" Lily explained to everyone. That made more sense to her, because she didn't think Harry and Dumbledore would tell anyone other than Ron and Hermione.

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. **

"He didn't" most muttered remembering the Horcruxes

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"He lost his powers" Dumbledore told the group, they looked a little awed at that. They knew he lost his body, but they didn't know he lost his power.

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

"I have an idea. There is one counter curse," Dumbledore mentioned to all the awed faces. They all thought they wasn't a counter curse for the killing curse. He explained more "A life needs to willing lay in front of a person about to receive the killing curse. But in the end, some one's going to die." He finished sadly, he looked around at all the puzzled faces, when he met Remus's there was realization there. Remus understood

"That's why Harry didn't die," he muttered to himself, but every heard him.

Lily looked at him a little puzzled "You understand?" She didn't see how this made sense

"Of course, I do." He replied, then added "So, do you, you're the one who done it" No one understood what these two people were talking about. Lily's expressions were changing from puzzlement, shock and then realization. She smiled and nodded.

"Can someone explain, please?" Sirius barked, he was getting annoyed at Lily, Remus and Dumbledore's riddle's.

"Lily, lay her life in front of Harry. She willing died to protect him. So when Voldmort tried to kill Harry it backfired because Lily's life was in the middle." Remus explained. Everyone understood, they were proud of Lily, she was crying on to James shirt.

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; **

Some people growled at that.

**if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"It doesn't work like that son,"James assured him _I wish it did._

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

Everyone burst out laughing, "Well being Parselmouth has it's advantages."James gasped. Which made everyone laugh more.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"I'm not sure if he'll like that" Lily said with a smile. She was proud of her son, for not being arrogant, even when he had ever right to be. With all the fame, he was still down to earth.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL To TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

_Uh-oh _everyone thought they knew how protective Hagrid was.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

The whole room erupted in laughter, oh how they loved Hagrid, "Serves them right" Alice gasped thought tears of laughter.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

This wasn't helping everyone calm down.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job**

Lily was shaking her head. She know understood how Hagrid and Harry were so close.

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

** "Why were you expelled?"**

"He won't tell you." James answered knowingly.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Well then, I think we all understand now?" Dumbledore asked the room and they all nodded.


	16. A Place to Hide

"Well, we should get back to the book we were originally reading." He turned the page. "Chapter nine"

**Everything seemed fuzzy, slow. Harry and Hermione jumped to their feet and drew their wands. **

"Oh, yeah, I forgot, the wedding was crashed" Sirius said gloomy, a lot of people started looking a little frantic.

**Many people were only just realizing that something strange had happened; heads were still turning toward the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.**

**Harry and Hermione threw themselves into the panicking crowd. Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken.**

"I would bet everything, they were the stronger enchantment we could have possibly made." Arther nodded worried

**"Ron!" Hermione cried. "Ron, where are you?"**

A lot of people were a looking tense "They should stick together" Moody growled

Everyone rounded on him "They are at a wedding, with enchantment everywhere. What do you expect." But he just shrugged them off.

**As they pushed their way across the dance floor, Harry saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd; **

Lily drew a breath in.

**then he saw Lupin and Tonks, their wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides -**

"Good, get your shields up" Moody nodded to Remus, who was enjoying Moody's unusual praise.

**"Ron! Ron!" Hermione called, half sobbing as she and Harry were buffered by terrified guests: Harry seized her hand to make sure they weren't separated as a streak of light whizzed over their heads, whether a protective charm or something more sinister he did not know –**

**And then Ron was there. He caught hold of Hermione's free arm, and Harry felt her turn on the spot; sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon him; all he could feel was Hermione's hand as he was squeezed through space and time, away from the Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself...**

Everyone let out a breathe they didn't know they had been holding in, they were away … but what was happening back there. _Let's hope nothing too bad. _

**"Where are we?" said Ron's voice.**

**Harry opened his eyes. For a moment he thought they had not left the wedding after all; They still seemed to be surrounded by people.**

**"Tottenham Court Road," panted Hermione. "Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change."**

Moody again grunted in approvel, it would be harder to find them in the muggle world.

**Harry did as she asked. They half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revelers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes.**

**"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.**

**"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and -"**

"Why would he have it on him, at all times? Even in the castle" Lily asked concerned.

"Lils, it doesn't seem like Harry, is really safe in the castle either." Remus informed her, a little wary.

**"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," said Hermione, "Just try and act naturally until - this will do."**

"How has she got them clothes? She's not even got a bag, has she?" Sirius asked, they all frowned at him wondering.

**She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway.**

**"When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes..." said Harry, frowning at Hermione, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging.**

Lily broke out in a smile. "Ah" she really loved this girl, and her charms.

**"Yes, they're here," said Hermione, and to Harry and Ron's utter astonishment, she pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, some maroon socks, and finally the silvery Invisibility Cloak.**

"I thought it said small?" Sirius wondered out load.

**"How the ruddy hell -?"**

**"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione. "Tricky, but I think I've done it okay; anyway, I managed to fit everything we need in here." She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it. "Oh, damn, that'll be the books," she said, peering into it, "and I had them all stacked by subject... Oh well... Harry, you'd better take the Invisibility Cloak. Ron, hurry up and change..."**

Most shook their heads at her antics _Clever, clever girl._

**"When did you do all this?" Harry asked as Ron stripped off his robes.**

**"I told you at the Burrow, I've had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, after you changed, and put it in here... I just had a feeling..."**

"She must have good instincts," Remus told everyone matter-of-factly.

Sirius chuckled and added "Or she's a seer." A few other people chuckled too.

**"You're amazing, you are," said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.**

"She really is, I don't think they would surive without her." Lily sighed. Knowing that even that innocent line, was too true.

**"Thank you," said Hermione, managing a small smile as she pushed the **robes** into the bag. "Please, Harry, get that Cloak on!"**

**Harry threw his Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders and pulled it up over his head, vanishing from sight. He was only just beginning to appreciate what had happened.**

**"The others - everybody at the wedding -"**

"Don't worry about them just now, worry about yourself." Moody grunted irrated.

**"We can't worry about that now," whispered Hermione. "It's you they're after, Harry, and we'll just put everyone in even more danger by going back."**

**"She's right," said Ron, who seemed to know that Harry was about to argue, even if he could not see his face. "Most of the Order was there, they'll look after everyone."**

"Exactly."

**Harry nodded, then remembered that they could not see him, and said, "Yeah." But he thought of Ginny, and fear bubbled like acid in his stomach.**

**"Come on, I think we ought to keep moving," said Hermione.**

"Good Granger, good"

**They moved back up the side street and onto the main road again, where a group of men on the opposite side was singing and weaving across the pavement.**

**"Just as a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?" Ron asked Hermione.**

**"I've no idea, it just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer out in the Muggle world, it's not where they'll expect us to be."**

Most nodded, that was true.

**"True," said Ron, looking around, "but don't you feel a bit - exposed?"**

"You're less exposed there, than the magical world."

**"Where else is there?" asked Hermione, cringing as the men on the other side of the road started wolf-whistling at her. "We can hardly book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out if Snape can get in there... I suppose we could try my parents' home, though I think there's a chance they might check there... Oh, I wish they'd shut up!"**

**"All right, darling?" the drunkest of the men on the other pavement was yelling. "Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger and come and have a pint!"**

A few people chuckled, despite the situation.

**"Let's sit down somewhere," Hermione said hastily as Ron opened his mouth to shout back across the road. "Look, this will do, in here!"**

**It was a small and shabby all-night cafe. A light layer of grease lay on all the Formica-topped tables, but it was at least empty. Harry slipped into a booth first and Ron sat next to him opposite Hermione, who had her back to the entrance and did not like it: She glanced over her shoulder so frequently she appeared to have a twitch. Harry did not like being stationary; walking had given the illusion that they had a goal. Beneath the Cloak he could feel the last vestiges of Polyjuice leaving him, his hands returning to their usual length and shape. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on again.**

_Oh-no, why do I have a bad feeling about this _mostly everyone thought, while shooting each other nervous glances.

**After a minute or two, Ron said, "You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross -"**

**"Ron, we can't!" said Hermione at once.**

**"Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!"**

**"We know what's going on! Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?"**

"Exactly, you'll just be in more danger, going there" Lily told the book

**"Okay, okay, it was just an idea!"**

**They relapsed into a prickly silence. The gum-chewing waitress shuffled over and Hermione ordered two cappuccinos: As Harry was invisible, it would have looked odd to order him one. A pair of burly workmen entered the cafe and squeezed into the next booth. Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper.**

**"I say we find a quiet place to Disapparate and head for the countryside. Once we're there, we could send a message to the Order."**

**"Can you do that talking Patronus thing, then?" asked Ron.**

**"I've been practicing and I think so," said Hermione.**

"That's impressive" everyone raised there eyebrows, so he added "Because she's only seventeen"

**"Well, as long as it doesn't get them into trouble, though they might've been arrested already. God, that's revolting," Ron added after one sip of the foamy, grayish coffee. The waitress had heard; she shot Ron a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers' orders. The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge, now that Harry came to look at him, waved her away. She stared, affronted.**

A few looked suspicious.

**"Let's get going, then, I don't want to drink this muck," said Ron. "Hermione, have you got Muggle money to pay for this?"**

**"Yes, I took out all my Building Society savings before I came to the Burrow. I'll bet all the change is at the bottom," sighed Hermione, reaching for her beaded bag.**

**The two workmen made identical movements, and Harry mirrored them without conscious thought: All three of them drew their wands. **

Everyone's eyes wided, how had the Death Eaters got there so fast, how had they even known where they were. But they were impressed at Harry's reflexes.

**Ron, a few seconds late in realizing what was going on, lunged across the table, pushing Hermione sideways onto her bench. The force of the Death Eaters' spells shattered the tiled wall where Ron's head had just been, as Harry, still invisible, yelled, "Stupefy!"**

"Good, he's got the advantage of being invisible" Alice nearly smiled.

**The great blond Death Eater was hit in the face by a jet of red light: He slumped sideways, unconscious. His companion, unable to see who had cast the spell, fired another at Ron: Shining black ropes flew from his wand-tip and bound Ron head to foot - the waitress screamed and ran for the door - Harry sent another Stunning Spell at the Death Eater with the twisted face who had tied up Ron, but the spell missed, rebounded on the window, and hit the waitress, who collapsed in front of the door**

"It's actually a good idea that happened, I mean do you really want her shouting about the street?" Frank pointed out.

**"Expulso!" bellowed the Death Eater, and the table behind which Harry was standing blew up: The force of the explosion slammed him into the wall and he felt his wand leave his hand as the Cloak slipped off him.**

**"Petrificus Totalus!" screamed Hermione from out of sight, and the Death Eater fell forward like a statue to land with a crunching thud on the mess of broken china, table, and coffee. Hermione crawled out from underneath the bench, shaking bits of glass ashtray out of her hair and trembling all over.**

Everyone let out shaky breathes.

**"D-diffindo," she said, pointing her wand at Ron, who roared in pain as she slashed open the knee of his jeans, leaving a deep cut. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron, my hand's shaking! Diffindo!"**

**The severed ropes fell away. Ron got to his feet, shaking his arms to regain feeling in them. Harry picked up his wand and climbed over all the debris to where the large blond Death Eater was sprawled across the bench.**

**"I should've recognized him, he was there the night Dumbledore died," he said. He turned over the darker Death Eater with his foot; the man's eyes moved rapidly between Harry, Ron and Hermione.**

"It's terrible, that Harry was there … I mean, right there" Everyone agreed with Lily.

**"That's Dolohov," said Ron. "I recognize him from the old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle."**

"Intresting" Remus muttered to himself, thinking about those two people, he knew Dolohov was hard work.

**"Never mind what they're called!" said Hermione a little hysterically. "How did they find us? What are we going to do?"**

"She needs to calm down, but she does have a point" Sirius explained to everyone at the table

**Somehow her panic seemed to clear Harry's head.**

"Sign of a true leader." Moody couldn't help but point out, everyone smiled and James and Lily beamed proudly.

**"Lock the door," he told her, "and Ron, turn out the lights."**

**He looked down at the paralyzed Dolohov, thinking fast as the lock clicked and Ron used the Deluminator to plunge the cafe into darkness. Harry could hear the men who had jeered at Hermione earlier, yelling at another girl in the distance.**

Most just shook their heads, planning not to comment on that.

**"What are we going to do with them?" Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, "Kill them? They'd kill us. They had a good go just now."**

**Hermione shuddered and took a step backward. Harry shook his head.**

**"We just need to wipe their memories," said Harry. "It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it'd be obvious we were here."**

"Good work, Potter" James looked up at him, then remembered Harry's second name was 'Potter' too, a few people smiled when they noticed James's mistake.

**"You're the boss," said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. "But I've never down a Memory Charm."**

"You're the boss?" Sirius said sounding amused

**"Nor have I," said Hermione, "but I know the theory."**

"Didn't she wipe her parent's memorys?" James asked a little curious

Lily shook her head "No, she modified them, she didn't wipe them" she explain as if it explained everything.

**She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov's forehead and said, "Obliviate."**

**At once, Dolohov's eyes became unfocused and dreamy.**

Arther smiled "Good, at least we know, it worked.

**"Brilliant!" said Harry, clapping her on the back. "Take care of the other one and the waitress while Ron and I clear up."**

**"Clear up?" said Ron, looking around at the partly destroyed cafe. "Why?"**

"Really?" a lot of people muttered at Ron.

**"Don't you think they might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed?"**

**"Oh right, yeah..."**

**Ron struggled for a moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.**

**"It's no wonder I can't get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they're tight."**

**"Oh, I'm so sorry," hissed Hermione, and as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows, Harry heard her mutter a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead.**

All the men laughed, Molly and Lily tried to look a little disapproving but it didn't work.

**Once the cafe was restored to its previous condition, they heaved the Death Eaters back into their booth and propped them up facing each other. "But how did they find us?" Hermione asked, looking from one inert man to the other. "How did they know where we were?"**

**She turned to Harry.**

**"You - you don't think you've still got your Trace on you, do you, Harry?"**

"Impossible" Alice answered "Right?" she asked everyone else a little uncertain. They nodded, _At least I hope so._

**"He can't have," said Ron. "The Trace breaks at seventeen, that's Wizarding law, you can't put it on an adult."**

**"As far as you know," said Hermione. "What if the Death Eaters have found a way to put it on a seventeen-year-old?"**

"Don't say that" some muttered a little frightened

**"But Harry hasn't been near a Death Eater in the last twenty-four hours. Who's supposed to have put a Trace back on him?"**

**Hermione did not reply. Harry felt contaminated, tainted: Was that really how the Death Eaters had found them?**

Dumbledore's eyebrows knitted together in thought.

**"If I can't use magic, and you can't use magic near me, without us giving away our position -" he began.**

**"We're not splitting up!" said Hermione firmly.**

"Thank you Hermione." Lily smiled

**"We need a safe place to hide," said Ron. "Give us time to think things through."**

**"Grimmauld Place," said Harry.**

Sirius huffed a little, he didn't like that place, or that it was the only house Harry felt safe in just now.

**The other two gaped.**

**"Don't be silly, Harry, Snape can get in there!"**

**"Ron's dad said they've put up jinxes against him - and even if they haven't worked," he pressed on as Hermione began to argue "so what? I swear, I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape!"**

Most groaned, they really hoped they didn't met, Snape was an excellent dueler.

**"But -"**

**"Hermione, where else is there? It's the best chance we've got. Snape's only one Death Eater. If I've still got the Trace on me, we'll have whole crowds of them on us wherever else we go."**

"Yeah, that's true"

**She could not argue, though she looked as if she would have liked to. While she unlocked the caf¨¦ door, Ron clicked the Deluminator to release the cafe's light. Then, on Harry's count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily, Harry, Ron and Hermione had turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more.**

**Seconds later Harry's lungs expanded gratefully and he opened his eyes: They were now standing in the middle of a familiar small and shabby square. Tall, dilapidated houses looked down on them from every side. Number twelve was visible to them, for they had been told of its existence by Dumbledore, its Secret-Keeper, and they rushed toward it, checking every few yards that they were not being followed or observed. They raced up the stone steps, and Harry tapped the front door once with his wand. They heard a series of metallic clicks and the clatter of a chain, then the door swung open with a creak and they hurried over the threshold.**

Sirius groaned again.

**As Harry closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway. It looked just as Harry remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother. The only thing that was out of place was the troll's leg umbrella stand, which was lying on its side as if Tonks had just knocked it over again.**

Sirius laughed out loud, "I guess she doesn't lose her clumsiness"

**"I think somebody's been in here," Hermione whispered, pointing toward it.**

**"That could've happened as the Order left," Ron murmured back.**

**"So where are these jinxes they put up against Snape?" Harry asked.**

**"Maybe they're only activated if he shows up?" suggested Ron.**

"Can they do that?" Frank asked Dumbledore, who just smiled and continued

**Yet they remained close together on the doormat, backs against the door, scared to move farther into the house.**

**"Well, we can't stay here forever," said Harry, and he took a step forward.**

**"Severus Snape?"**

_Who's that? _Everyone thought worried.

**Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness, making all three of them jump back in fright. "We're not Snape!" croaked Harry, before something whooshed over him like cold air and his tongue curled backward on itself, making it impossible to speak. Before he had time to feel inside his mouth, however, his tongue had unraveled again.**

**The other two seemed to have experienced the same unpleasant sensation. Ron was making retching noises; Hermione stammered, "That m-must have b-been the T-Tongue-Tying Curse Mad-Eye set up for Snape!"**

"Well, it's nice to know it worked." Moody smirked

**Gingerly Harry took another step forward. Something shifted in the shadows at the end of the hall, and before any of them could say another word, a figure had risen up out of the carpet, tall, dust-colored, and terrible; Hermione screamed and so did Mrs. Black, her curtains flying open; the gray figure was gliding toward them, faster and faster, its waist-length hair and beard streaming behind it, its face sunken, fleshless, with empty eye sockets: Horribly familiar, dreadfully altered, it raised a wasted arm, pointing at Harry.**

Everyone shuddered.

**"No!" Harry shouted, and though he had raised his wand no spell occurred to him. "No! It wasn't us! We didn't kill you -"**

**On the word kill, the figure exploded in a great cloud of dust:**

"Intresting" Moody said again, admiring his curses.

** Coughing, his eyes watering, Harry looked around to see Hermione crouched on the floor by the door with her arms over her head, and Ron, who was shaking from head to foot, patting her clumsily on the shoulder and saying, "It's all r-right... It's g-gone..."**

**Dust swirled around Harry like mist, catching the blue gaslight, as Mrs. Black continued to scream.**

**"Mudbloods, filth, stains of dishonor, taint of shame on the house of my fathers -"**

"Just shut up _Mother" _Sirius snarled, and a few people who didn't know how bad his mother was looked a little disgusted.

**"SHUT UP!" Harry bellowed, directing his wand at her, and with a bang and a burst of red sparks, the curtains swung shut again, silencing her.**

"If he were hear night now, I'd shake his hand" He announced cheerfully. A few people laughed.

**"That... that was..." Hermione whimpered, as Ron helped her to her feet.**

**"Yeah," said Harry, "but it wasn't really him, was it? Just something to scare Snape."**

"Do you think it would have worked?" Lily asked warily.

**Had it worked, Harry wondered, or had Snape already blasted the horror-figure aside as casually as he had killed the real Dumbledore? **

"Exactly my point," she didn't want to think about what her ex-best friend done, but it was hard not too when he kept getting mentioned.

**Nerves still tingling, he led the other two up the hall, half-expecting some new terror to reveal itself, but nothing moved except for a mouse skittering along the skirting board.**

**"Before we go any farther, I think we'd better check," whispered Hermione, and she raised her wand and said, "Homenum revelio."**

**Nothing happened.**

"Good,"

**"Well, you've just had a big shock," said Ron kindly. "What was that supposed to do?"**

Everyone laughed, Ron was obviously not familiar with that spell.

**"It did what I meant it to do!" said Hermione rather crossly. "That was a spell to reveal human presence, and there's nobody here except us!"**

**"And old Dusty," said Ron, glancing at the patch of carpet from which the corpse-figure had risen.**

A few chuckled, darkly though.

**"Let's go up," said Hermione with a frightened look at the same spot, and she led the way up the creaking stairs to the drawing room on the first floor.**

**Hermione waved her wand to ignite the old gas lamps, then, shivering slightly in the drafty room, she perched on the sofa, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Ron crossed to the window and moved the heavy velvet curtains aside an inch.**

**"Can't see anyone out there," he reported. "And you'd think, if Harry still had a Trace on him, they'd have followed us here. I know they can't get in the house, but - what's up, Harry?"**

"What? What's wrong?" everyone asked, they can't remember anything getting mentioned.

**Harry had given a cry of pain: His scar had burned against as something flashed across his mind like a bright light on water. He saw a large shadow and felt a fury that was not his own pound through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock.**

"Oh, it's_ him_ again." Sirius growled dangeriously low. Everyone's faces hardened,

**"What did you see?" Ron asked, advancing on Harry. "Did you see him at my place?"**

**"No, I just felt anger - he's really angry -"**

"He can feel him … James, did you hear that. He can feel what Voldemort feels" in a terrified little voice, but to be honest, that would terrify anyone.

**"But that could be at the Burrow," said Ron loudly. "What else? Didn't you see anything? Was he cursing someone?"**

"None, be glad, Harry didn't see the Burrow, that means he's not there." Arther said in a shaky breath.

**"No, I just felt anger ¨C I couldn't tell -"**

**Harry felt badgered, confused, and Hermione did not help as she said in a frightened voice, "Your scar, again? But what's going on? I thought that connection had closed!"**

"Oh, she's not helping" Alice snapped, she like the girl but she wasn't exactly helping, she didn't understand that he couldn't

**"It did, for a while," muttered Harry; his scar was still painful, which made it hard to concentrate. "I - I think it's started opening again whenever he loses control, that's how it used to -"**

**"But then you've got to close your mind!" said Hermione shrilly. "Harry, Dumbledore didn't want you to use that connection, he wanted you to shut it down, that's why you were supposed to use Occlumency! Otherwise Voldemort can plant false images in your mind, remember -"**

"Yeah, well obviously Occlumency isn't working," Sirius growled again,

**"Yeah, I do remember, thanks," said Harry through gritted teeth; he did not need Hermione to tell him that Voldemort had once used this selfsame connection between them to lead him into a trap, nor that it had resulted in Sirius's death.**

"He didn't need reminding" Sirius said rubbing his temple, he doubted his Godson would enjoy hearing any of this.

** He wished that he had not told them what he had seen and felt; it made Voldemort more threatening, as though he were pressing against the window of the room, and still the pain in his scar was building and he fought it: It was like resisting the urge to be sick.**

"It must be really bad then" Alice mumbered, she had never had pain like that before, not pain that actually nearly caused him to be sick.

**He turned his back on Ron and Hermione, pretending to examine the old tapestry of the Black family tree on the wall. Then Hermione shrieked: Harry drew his wand again and spun around to see a silver Patronus soar through the drawing room window and land upon the floor in front of them, where it solidified into the weasel that spoke with the voice of Ron's father.**

**"Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched."**

Everyone let out a breathe they didn't know they were holding in, at least they knew the family was fine, and nothing went wrong.

**The Patronus dissolved into nothingness. Ron let out a noise between a whimper and a groan and dropped onto the sofa: Hermione joined him, gripping his arm.**

**"They're all right, they're all right!" she whispered, and Ron half laughed and hugged her.**

**"Harry," he said over Hermione's shoulder, "I -"**

**"It's not a problem," said Harry, sickened by the pain in his head. "It's your family, 'course you were worried. I'd feel the same way." He thought of Ginny. "I do feel the same way."**

Molly and Lily smiled at this, it seems Harry really liked Ginny.

**The pain in his scar was reaching a peak, burning as it had back in the garden of the Burrow. Faintly he heard Hermione say "I don't want to be on my own. Could we use the sleeping bags I've brought and camp in here tonight?"**

**He heard Ron agree. He could not fight the pain much longer. He had to succumb.**

**"Bathroom," he muttered, and he left the room as fast as he could without running.**

"No wonder he didn't tell them, look at the way they act," Sirius said bitterly, he liked Ron and Hermione, but that doesn't mean that they should treat Harry like that, especially over something he can't control.

**He barely made it: Bolting the door behind him with trembling hands, he grasped his pounding head and fell to the floor, then in an explosion of agony, he felt the rage that did not belong to him possess his soul, saw a long room lit only by firelight, and the giant blond Death Eater on the floor, screaming and writhing, and a slighter figure standing over him, wand outstretched, while Harry spoke in a high, cold, merciless voice.**

**"More, Rowle, or shall we end it and feed you to Nagini? Lord Voldemort is not sure that he will forgive this time... You called me back for this, to tell me that Harry Potter has escaped again? Draco, give Rowle another taste of our displeasure... Do it, or feel my wrath yourself!"**

Everyone shook their heads, they knew Harry wouldn't have done it, he would have felt the wrath, but Draco was a Slytherin and not as brave as Harry, they could understand him, feeling like he didn't have a choice. _If he treats his sevents like that, Harry will be much worse _

**A log fell in the fire: Flames reared, their light darting across a terrified, pointed white face - with a sense of emerging from deep water, Harry drew heaving breaths and opened his eyes.**

**He was spread-eagled on the cold black marble floor, his nose inches from one of the silver serpent tails that supported the large bathtub. He sat up. Malfoy's gaunt, petrified face seemed burned on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.**

"Us too"

**There was a sharp rap on the door, and Harry jumped as Hermione's voice rang out.**

**"Harry, do you want your toothbrush? I've got it here."**

**"Yeah, great, thanks," he said, fighting to keep his voice casual as he stood up to let her in.**

Lily was fuming, Her boy was, just, she didn't know. But she hated Voldemort more than ever.


	17. Kreacher's Tale

"I think this should be the last chapter for tonight, don't you all agree?" They nodded so he began

**Harry woke early next morning, wrapped in a sleeping bag on the drawing-room floor. A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for Ron and Hermione's slow, deep breathing. Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside him. Ron had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron's. Harry wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands. **

Everyone smiled, they knew Ron and Hermione liked each other, they just wouldn't admit it.

**The idea made him feel strangely lonely.**

Some signed on his account.

**He looked up at the shadowy ceiling, the cobwebbed chandelier. Less than twenty-four house ago, he had been standing in the sunlight at the entrance to the marquee, waiting to show in wedding guests. It seemed a lifetime away. What was going to happen now? He lay on the floor and he thought of the Horcruxes, of the daunting complex mission Dumbledore had left him... Dumbledore...**

**The grief that had possessed him since Dumbledore's death felt different now. The accusations he had heard from Muriel at the wedding seemed to have nested in his brain like diseased things, infecting his memories of the wizard he had idolized. Could Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him? **

A few flinched.

**Could he have turned his back on a sister who was being imprisoned and hidden?**

The Dumbledore's sighed and shook their heads. Hidden, yes, imprisoned, no.

**Harry thought of Godric's Hollow, of graves Dumbledore had never mentioned there; he thought of mysterious objects left without explanation in Dumbledore's will, and resentment swelled in the darkness. Why hadn't Dumbledore told him? Why hadn't he explained? Had Dumbledore actually cared about Harry at all? Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?**

_I don't think so Harry, not at all. I promise that._

**Harry could not stand lying there with nothing but bitter thoughts for company. Desperate for something to do, for distraction, he slipped out of his sleeping bad, picked up his wand, and crept out of the room. On the landing he whispered, "Lumos," and started to climb the stairs by wandlight.**

**On the second landing was the bedroom in which he and Ron had slept last time they had been here; he glanced into it. The wardrobe doors stood open and the bedclothes had been ripped back. Harry remembered the overturned troll leg downstairs. Somebody had searched the house since the Order had left. Snape? Or perhaps Mundungus, who had pilfered plenty from this house both before and after Sirius died? **

"I'm hoping Mundungus" most muttered to themselves.

**Harry's gaze wandered to the portrait that sometimes contained Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius's great-great grandfather, but it was empty, showing nothing but a stretch of muddy backdrop. Phineas Nigellus was evidently spending the night in the headmaster's study at Hogwarts.**

"I hated him … so annoying," Sirius reported back to them

**Harry continued up the stairs until he reached the topmost landing where there were only two doors. The one facing him bore a nameplate reading Sirius. Harry had never entered his godfather's bedroom before. He pushed open the door, holding his wand high to cast light as widely as possible. The room was spacious and must once have been handsome. There was a large bed with a carved wooden headboard, a tall window obscured by long velvet curtains and a chandelier thickly coated in dust with candle scrubs still resting in its sockets, solid wax banging in frostlike drips. A fine film of dust covered the pictures on the walls and the bed's headboard; a spiders web stretched between the**

**chandelier and the top of the large wooden wardrobe, and as Harry moved deeper into the room, he head a scurrying of disturbed mice.**

"My poor room" Sirius muttered to himself.

**The teenage Sirius had plastered the walls with so many posters and pictures that little of the wall's silvery-gray silk was visible. Harry could only assume that Sirius's parents had been unable to remove the Permanent Sticking Charm that kept them on the wall because he was sure they would not have appreciated their eldest son's taste in decoration. Sirius seemed to have long gone out of his way to annoy his parents. **

Sirius's smirk kept getting wider "Got that right Harry"

**There were several large Gryffindor banners, faded scarlet and gold just to underline his difference from all the rest of the Slytherin family. There were many pictures of Muggle motorcycles, and also (Harry had to admire Sirius's nerve) several posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls. **

He chuckled to himself about that "Thanks Harry"

**Harry could tell that they were Muggles because they remained quite stationary within their pictures, faded smiles and glazed eyes frozen on the paper. This was in contrast the only Wizarding photograph on the walls which was a picture of four Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, laughing at the camera.**

James, Sirius and Remus all grinned at each other.

**With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognized his father, his untidy black hair stuck up at the back like Harry's, and he too wore glasses. Beside him was Sirius, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever seen it alive.**

"I don't think I'd have been alive without Prongs" he muttered to himself. No, he'd be half dead already.

** To Sirius's right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much-admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. **

Most growled at him, little Pettigrew was smarter than they thought.

**On James's left was Lupin, even then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture? He tried to take it from the wall; it was his now, after all, Sirius had left him everything, but it would not budge. Sirius had taken no chances in preventing his parents from redecorating his room.**

Sirius cringed "Sorry Harry"

**Harry looked around at the floor. The sky outside was growing brightest. A shaft of light revealed bits of paper, books, and small objects scattered over the carpet. Evidently Sirius's bedroom had been reached too, although its contents seemed to have been judged mostly, if not entirely, worthless. A few of the books had been shaken roughly enough to part company with the covers and sundry pages littered the floor.**

**Harry bent down, picked up a few of the pieces of paper, and examined them. He recognized one as a part of an old edition of A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot, and another as belonging to a motorcycle maintenance manual. The third was handwritten and crumpled. He smoothed it out.**

**Dear Padfoot,**

"Who's this from?" McGonnagal asked knowing only James, Remus, and Peter call him that, and they didn't seem likely to put 'Dear' well maybe Remus.

**Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself. **

Sirius smiled and was rather pleased with himself first.

"It's from me," Lily stated, and smiled

**I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course James thought it was so funny, **

"That's because it is …" He grins "Well it sounds it."

**says he's going to be a great Quidditch player but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.**

James smiled, _he is a good player, Hermione said great seeker_

**We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell - also Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much Wormy was here last weekend. **

"Oh, just great … what does he want … to check I'm still breathing" James huffed out noisily.

**I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the next about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard.**

Marlene sniffed in the corner, and just gave everyone a watery smile when they looked at her.

**Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore. I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually because it seems incredible that Dumbledore – **

**Harry's extremities seemed to have gone numb. He stood quite still, holding the miraculous paper in his nerveless fingers while inside him a kind of quiet eruptions sent joy and grief thundering its equal measure through his veins. Lurching to the bed, he sat down.**

No one knew whether to smile or not.

**He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her "g"s the same way he did. He searched through the letter for every one of them, and each felt like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil. The letter was an incredible treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him, Harry, her son.**

Lip bit her lip, she know she didn't know her son in the future. But to hear that … it was just so … real. Many people were thinking the same.

**Impatiently brushing away the wetness in his eyes, he reread the letter, this time concentrating on the meaning. It was like listening to a half-remembered voice.**

Lily sighed _My baby boy, I'll always he whispering in your ear, even if you don't know it _

**They had a cat... perhaps it had perished, like his parents at Godric's Hollow... or else fled when there was nobody left to feed it... **

"Oh, I hope it didn't die," Lily worried, most people chuckled thinking she was joking,

**Sirius had bought him his first broomstick... His parents had known Bathilda Bagshot; had Dumbledore introduced them? Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak... there was something funny there...**

"Exactly …" James looked at the Headmaster suspiciously, he never gave any hints, so he wanted to know what Dobby sad to say first.

**Harry paused, pondering his mother's words. Why had Dumbledore taken James's Invisibility Cloak? Harry distinctly remembered his headmaster telling him years before, "I don't need a cloak to become invisible" Perhaps some less gifted Order member had needed its assistance, and Dumbledore had acted as a carrier? Harry passed on...**

"I doubt it … Why would you want it Sir?"

Dumbledore sighed sadly "I have idea's, though I hope I'm wrong."

**Wormy was here... Pettigrew, the traitor, had seemed "down" had he? Was he aware that he was seeing James and Lily alive for the last time?**

"Most likely, he's a little rat" Moody muttered, all three friends and Lily looked at each other, is that why it his form is a rat …

**And finally Bathilda again, who told incredible stories about Dumbledore. It seems incredible that Dumbledore -**

**That Dumbledore what? But there were any number of things that would seem incredible about Dumbledore; that he had once received bottom marks in a Transfiguration test, for instance or had taken up goat charming like Aberforth...**

**Harry got to his feet and scanned the floor: Perhaps the rest of the letter was here somewhere. He seized papers, treating them in his eagerness, with as little consideration as the original searcher, he pulled open drawers, shook out books, stood on a chair to run his hand over the top of the wardrobe, and crawled under the bed and armchair.**

**At last, lying facedown on the floor, he spotted what looked like a torn piece of paper under the chest of drawers. When he pulled it out, it proved to be most of the photograph that Lily had described in her letter. A black-haired baby was zooming in and out of the picture on a tiny broom, roaring with laughter, and a pair of legs that must have belonged to James was chasing after him. **

Everyone smiled at the description of the photo. It seemed so nice and happy.

**Harry tucked the photograph into his pocket with Lily's letter and continued to look for the second sheet.**

**After another quarter of an hour, however he was forced to conclude that the rest of his mother's letter was gone. Had it simply been lost in the sixteen years that had elapsed since it had been written, or had it been taken by whoever had searched the room?**

"Why would they want, what ever was on the letter?" Sirius wondered out load

** Harry read the first sheet again, this time looking for clues as to what might have made the second sheet valuable. His toy broomstick could hardly be considered interesting to the Death Eaters... The only potentially useful thing he could see her was possible information on Dumbledore. It seems incredible that Dumbledore - what?**

"Exactly …"

**"Harry? Harry? Harry!"**

**"I'm here!" he called, "What's happened?"**

**There was a clatter of footsteps outside the door, and Hermione burst inside.**

"They would have been terrified, for him" Lily whispered to herself.

**"We woke up and didn't know where you were!" she said breathlessly. She turned and shouted over her shoulder, "Ron! I've found him"**

**Ron's annoyed voice echoed distantly from several floors below.**

**"Good! Tell him from me he's a git!"**

A few people chuckled, "Well I guess Ron wasn't happy with him."

**"Harry don't just disappear, please, we were terrified! Why did you come up here anyway?" She gazed around the ransacked room. "What have you been doing?"**

**"Look what I've just found"**

**He held out his mother's letter. Hermione took it out and read it while Harry watched her. When she reached the end of the page she looked up at him.**

**"Oh Harry..."**

**"And there's this too"**

**He handed her the torn photograph, and Hermione smiled at the baby zooming in and out of sight on the toy broom.**

A few others smiled too … it was nice for him to get it.

**"I've been looking for the rest of the letter," Harry said, "but it's not here."**

**Hermione glanced around.**

**"Did you make all this mess, or was some of it done when you got here?"**

**"Someone had searched before me," said Harry.**

**"I thought so. Every room I looked into on the way up had been disturbed. What were they after, do you think?"**

"Oh no, I'm really hoping it's Dung"

**"Information on the Order, if it was Snape."**

**"But you'd think he'd already have all he needed. I mean he was in the Order, wasn't he?"**

"Yeah, I still don't understand that" Sirius told Dumbledore, who shook his head at Sirius

"No, neither to I"

**"Well then," said Harry, keen to discuss his theory, "what about information on Dumbledore? The second page of the letter, for instance. You know this Bathilda my mum mentions, you know who she is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Bathilda Bagshot, the author of -"**

**"A History of Magic," said Hermione, looking interested. "So your parents knew her? She was an incredible magic historian."**

Lily smiled "Yeah, she is"

"Of course, that's what Hermione would be interested in." James said shaking his head.

**"And she's still alive," said Harry, "and she lives in Godric's Hollow. Ron's Auntie Muriel was talking about her at the wedding. She knew Dumbledore's family too. Be pretty interesting to talk to, wouldn't she?" **

They all knew why Harry wanted to go, but felt best he didn't, not just now anyway.

**There was a little too much understanding in the smile Hermione gave him for Harry's liking. He took back the letter and the photograph and tucked them inside the pouch around his neck, so as not to have to look at her and give himself away. "I understand why you'd love to talk to her about your mum and dad, and Dumbledore too," said Hermione. "But that wouldn't really help us in our search for the Horcruxes, would it?" Harry did not answer, and she rushed on, "Harry, I know you really want to go to Godric's Hollow, but I'm scared. I'm scared at how easily those Death Eaters found us yesterday. It just makes me feel more than ever that we ought to avoid the place where your parents are buried, I'm sure they'd be expecting you to visit it."**

"Exactly Harry, listen to her."

**"It's not just that," Harry said, still avoiding looking at her, "Muriel said stuff about Dumbledore at the wedding. I want to know the truth..."**

**He told Hermione everything that Muriel had told him. When he had finished, Hermione said, "Of course, I can see why that's upset you, Harry -"**

**"I'm not upset," he lied, "I'd just like to know whether or not it's true or -"**

"He is upset." Most mumbled to themselves.

**"Harry do you really think you'll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter? How can you believe them? You knew Dumbledore!"**

**"I thought I did," he muttered.**

"No, Harry, you did" Frank's voice rang out clearly.

**"But you know how much truth there was in everything Rita wrote about you! Doge is right, how can you let these people tarnish your memories of Dumbledore?"**

**He looked away, trying not to betray the resentment he felt. There it was again: Choose what to believe. He wanted the truth. Why was everybody so determined that he should not get it?**

**"Shall we go down to the kitchen?" Hermione suggested after a little pause. "Find something for breakfast?"**

**Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black**

**Excitement trickled through Harry, but he was not immediately sure why. He read the sign again. Hermione was already a flight of stairs below him.**

Lily and Remus gasped, and Dumbledore smiled. "So, it's true then, It's him" Sirius smiled, proud of his brother. Everyone else was looking at them in confused.

**"Hermione," he said, and he was surprised that his voice was so calm. "Come back up here."**

**"What's the matter?"**

**"R.A.B. I think I've found him."**

James looked round to Sirius really fast "No way?" he nearly yelled with wide eyes

"I thought it was him, but it seemed unlikely, I'm happy about one thing though, he died on the right side" He was proud of his brother.

**There was a gasp, and then Hermione ran back up the stairs.**

**"In your mum's letter? But I didn't see -"**

**Harry shook his head, pointing at Regulus's sign. She read it, then clutched Harry's arm so tightly that he winced.**

**"Sirius's brother?" she whispered.**

**"He was a Death Eater," said Harry. "Sirius told me about him, he joined up when he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave - so they killed him."**

Sirius sighed, he wished he could help his brother _you could have came to me Reg, I would have helped. _

**"That fits!" gasped Hermione. "If he was a Death Eater he had access to Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring Voldemort down!"**

**She released Harry, leaned over the banister, and screamed, "Ron! RON! Get up here, quick!"**

**Ron appeared, panting, a minute later, his wand ready in his hand.**

"Good" Moody grunted. _Least their ready_

**"What's up? If it's massive spiders again I want breakfast before I -"**

**He frowned at the sign on Regulus's door, in which Hermione was silently pointing.**

**"What? That was Sirius's brother, wasn't it? Regulus Arcturus ... Regulus ... R.A.B.! The locket - you don't reckon -?"**

"Obviously" Frank said, why else would they show sign.

**"Let's find out," said Harry. He pushed the door: It was locked. Hermione pointed her wand at the handle and said, "Alohamora." There was a click, and the door swung open.**

**They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus's bedroom was slightly smaller than Sirius's, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas Sirius had sought to advertise his diffidence from the rest of the family, Regulus had striven to emphasize the opposite. **

"I don't care, he still died on the good side." Sirius stated proudly, it made everyone smile a little.

**The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, TOUJOURS PUR. Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.**

**"They're all about Voldemort," she said. "Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters ..."**

That made Sirius wince a little.

**A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings. Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph: a Hogwarts Quidditch team was smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.**

"Thank you Harry" Sirius said a little too boastful, which mad everyone roll their eyes. Typical Sirius.

**"He played Seeker," said Harry.**

**"What?" said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in Voldemort's press clippings.**

**"He's sitting in the middle of the front row, that's where the Seeker ... Never mind," said Harry, realizing that nobody was listening. **

James smiled, at the fact his son shared his love for Quidditch.

**Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers' contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value there: old quills, out-of-date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a recently smashed ink bottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.**

**"There's an easier way," said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his jeans. She raised her wand and said, "Accio Locket!"**

**Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed.**

"I didn't expect it too" Lily point out but she huffed out a disappointed breath.

**"Is that it, then? It's not here?"**

**"Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments," said Hermione. "Charms to prevent it from being summoned magically, you know."**

**"Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave," said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.**

A few people were about to ask what cave, but thought better of it._ I don't think we want to know._

**"How are we supposed to find it then?" asked Ron.**

**"We search manually," said Hermione.**

**"That's a good idea," said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination of the curtains.**

A few men nodded, they hated cleaning and this sounded a bit like it.

**They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced, finally, to conclude that the locket was not there.**

**The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing windows.**

**"It could be somewhere else in the house, though," said Hermione in a rallying tone as they walked back downstairs. As Harry and Ron had become more discouraged, she seemed to have become more determined. "Whether he'd manage to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn't he? Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them there to protect the locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at ... at ..."**

**Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.**

"She's knows where it is" Sirius said happily

"No, I don't think she does, she remembers it but I don't think she knows were it is" Lily answered

**"... at the time," she finished in a whisper.**

**"Something wrong?" asked Ron.**

**"There was a locket."**

**"What?" said Harry and Ron together.**

**"In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we ... we ..."**

"Oh no, please don't say they threw it out … what are they going to do, it could be anywhere" Lily moaned to herself, as if debating with someone who isn't there.

**Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest into his stomach. He remembered. He had even handled the thing as they passed it around, each trying in turn to pry it open. **

A few shuddered at the thought of touching Voldemort soul.

**It had been tossed into a sack of rubbish, along with the snuffbox of Wartcap powder and the music box that had made everyone sleepy ...**

**"Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," said Harry. It was the only chance, the only slender hope left to them, and he was going to cling to it until forced to let go. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."**

"Please, please Kreacher, I will forgive most things if you do … most things" Sirius told the books, willing for it to hear him.

**He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall.**

**"Filth! Mudbloods! Scum!" she screamed after them as they dashed down into the basement kitchen and slammed the door behind them. Harry ran the length of the room, skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, and wrenched it open. There was the nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were not longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. Refusing to believe his eyes, Harry snatched up the blankets and shook them. A dead mouse fell out and rolled dismally across the floor. Ron groaned as he threw himself into a kitchen chair; Hermione closed her eyes.**

"Kreacher, you can't even do that right" he moaned, he stressing out … _Stupid, idiot elf. _Sirius thought, adding on a few other words.

**"It's not over yet," said Harry, and he raised his voice and called, "Kreacher!"**

**There was a loud crack and the house elf that Harry had so reluctantly inherited from Sirius appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace: tiny, half human-sized, his pale skin hanging off him in folds, white hair sprouting copiously from his batlike ears. He was still wearing the filthy rag in which they had first met him, and the contemptuous look he bent upon Harry showed that his attitude to his change of ownership had altered no more than his outfit.**

**"Master," croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog's voice, and he bowed low; muttering to his knees, "back in my Mistress's old house with the blood-traitor Weasley and the Mudblood -"**

Most huffed, _how dare that stupid elf, say that._

**"I forbid you to call anyone 'blood traitor' or 'Mudblood,'" growled Harry. He would have found Kreacher, with his snoutlike nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctively unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to Voldemort.**

"I hate him, so much, but I think my death made it worse" Sirius muttered to James, who nodded.

**"I've got a question for you," said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked down at the elf, "and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?"**

"Good man, no loopholes" Moody spoke out loud

**"Yes, Master," said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.**

Sirius nodded, he knew that was true.

**"Two years ago," said Harry, his heart now hammering against his ribs, "there was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs. We threw it out. Did you steal it back?"**

**There was a moment's silence, during which Kreacher straightened up to look Harry full in the face. Then he said, "Yes."**

Everyone looked startled, they didn't think he would have but Sirius looked much happier than before "Ok, I think I might forgive him for everything, apart from my death."

**"Where is it now?" asked Harry jubilantly as Ron and Hermione looked gleeful.**

**Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his next word.**

**"Gone."**

"Never mind, I take everything I just said back" He said a little disappointed

"Padfoot, will you shut up" Remus snapped at him.

**"Gone?" echoed Harry, elation floating out of him, "What do you mean, it's gone?"**

**The elf shivered. He swayed.**

**"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely, "I order you -"**

**"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all; Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and - and -"**

The whole room growled. _Dung, when we see you_ then they added _I don't even care you've not done it yet._

**Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.**

"Who's orders? It sounds like he's disobeying orders." James noticed.

**"- and the locket, Master Regulus's locket. Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"**

"What orders?" Sirius shouted urgently.

**Harry reacted instinctively: As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate, he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Hermione's scream mingled with Kreacher's but Harry bellowed louder than both of them: "Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"**

"It sounds like he has experience with house-elf's but how? He lived with muggles." Remus wondered out load, no one knew the answer.

**He felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.**

**"Harry, let him up!" Hermione whispered.**

**"So he can beat himself up with the poker?" snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf. "I don't think so. Right. Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket?"**

**"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth full of graying teeth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran ..."**

"Oh, I want to kill him, they need that bloody locket" Lily screeched.

**"You called the locket 'Master Regulus's,'" said Harry. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!"**

"See, how many of you can tell you, that if you hadn't met any other house-elf apart from Kreacher, you would no, that you need to fill the loopholes, and that would mean that Harry is either close or owns another house-elf, because sometimes if a house-elf is free, then can choose their alliance, but Harry would need to be close to them." Remus told them, hardly any of them have known that.

**The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.**

**"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways. **

"Get on with the story," Sirius mumbled irritated.

**But Master Regulus had proper order; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns ... and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve ...**

"Well, that changed, didn't it." He announced proudly about his brother.

**And one day, a year after he joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said ... he said ..."**

**The old elf rocked faster than ever.**

**"... he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."**

Everyone looked a little puzzled and startled. "Why?"

**"Voldemort needed an elf?" Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did.**

**"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do ... and then to c-come home."**

**Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.**

"What?" Sirius said, shocked. This wasn't the Kreacher he knew "What happened to him?"

**"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake ..."**

**The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. Kreacher's croaking voice seemed to come to him from across the dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly as though he had been present.**

"It's the same place, Harry went to then."

**"... There was a boat ..."**

**Of course there had been a boat; Harry knew the boat, ghostly green and tiny, bewitched so as to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the center. This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux, by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf...**

"What does that mean?" Molly croaked out, "Do I even want to know?"

**"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it ..."**

**The elf quaked from head to foot.**

**"Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible thing ... Kreacher's insides burned ... Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed ... He made Kreacher drink all the potion ... He dropped a locket into the empty basin ... He filled it with more potion."**

"Oh my Merlin" Lily whispered "That sounds … terrible." That wasn't even the right word to explain how that sounds, but she couldn't find any other. Sirius was in shock, about what Kreacher had just said, and what Kreacher had went though.

**"And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island ..."**

**Harry could see it happening. He watched Voldemort's white, snakelike face vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the thrashing elf whose death would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the burning poison caused its victim ... But here, Harry's imagination could go no further, for he could not see how Kreacher had escaped.**

Everyone was white, obviously Harry had been to this place. _How had he escaped? _They all thought. No one understood that part.

**"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake ... and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface ..."**

"Inferi" Lily croaked, paling even more.

**"How did you get away?" Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.**

**Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes.**

**"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.**

**"I know - but how did you escape the Inferi?"**

**Kreacher did not seem to understand.**

**"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated.**

**"**Of course," Lily whispered understanding "He had to follow Regulus last order."

**"I know, but -"**

**"Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Harry?" said Ron. "He Disapparated!"**

**"But ... you couldn't Apparate in and out of that cave," said Harry, "otherwise Dumbledore -"**

"He was in there with you." James noted faintly, nodding to Dumbledore. That thought calmed him slightly, Dumbledore wouldn't let anything happen to Harry.

**"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic, is it?" said Ron, "I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."**

**There was a silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.**

**"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice ... It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."**

"That's one of his weaknesses." Dumbledore informed the table,

**"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home ..."**

Most nodded.

**"Well, then, you did what you were told, didn't you?" said Hermione kindly. "You didn't disobey orders at all!"**

**Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever.**

"Why do I have a feeling, I don't want to know what's next?" Molly questioned Arther, who nodded in understanding.

**"So what happened when you got back?" Harry asked. "What did Regulus say when you told him what happened?"**

**"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then ... it was a little while later ... Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell ... **

"This is when he was changing then," Sirius nodded with the information.

**and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord ..."**

Sirius paled completely "Oh no," he closed his eyes "Please, please, tell me, what I think is wrong?" No one answered. They wanted to tell him that, but they didn't want to lie.

**And so they had set off. Harry could visualize them quite clearly, the frightened old elf and the thin, dark Seeker who had so resembled Sirius ... Kreacher knew how to open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat: this time it was his beloved Regulus who sailed with him to the island with its basin of poison ...**

**"And he made you drink the poison?" said Harry, disgusted.**

**But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth: She seemed to have understood something.**

Sirius looked like he would cry, he didn't want to hear, what he thought was next.

**"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets ..."**

**Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to understand him.**

**"And he order - Kreacher to leave - without him. And he told Kreacher - to go home - and never to tell my Mistress - what he had done - but to destroy - the first locket. And he drank - all the potion - and Kreacher swapped the lockets - and watched ... as Master Regulus ... was dragged beneath the water ... and ..."**

James pulled Sirius in to a hug, he knew Sirius loved his brother. He was so happy when he thought he died on the good side, which he did. But no one deserved to die that way, well maybe Voldemort. Everyone was shocked, they didn't know what to say, they knew Sirius needed comfort. They knew he was upset, even though he was determined not to cry, not in front of them.

Sirius was crying silently on to James shoulder. He was determined not to cry but he couldn't help it, his brother was so brave and he died a hero, and no body even knew. _Why didn't you come to me? You fool. I could have help. I could have saved you, you're my brother_

**"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was crying. She dropped to her knees beside the elf and tried to hug him. At once he was on his feet, cringing away from her, quite obviously repulsed.**

**"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his Mistress say?"**

**"I told you not to call her 'Mudblood'!" snarled Harry, but the elf was already punishing himself. He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.**

**"Stop him - stop him!" Hermione cried. "Oh, don't you see now how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?"**

"Exactly" Lily said biting her lip, she wanted to help Sirius but he seemed to only was James and Remus just now, so she just patted his shoulder.

**"Kreacher - stop, stop!" shouted Harry.**

**The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snot, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Harry had never seen anything so pitiful.**

**"So you brought the locket home," he said relentlessly, for he was determined to know the full story. "And you tried to destroy it?"**

**"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work ... So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open ... Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave ..."**

"I actually feel sorry for him" Sirius muttered into James shoulders, and the way he said it made Remus and James lips twitch, they were so used to Sirius ranting about the elf, he hated so much.

**Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher's, looked troubled. Harry sat back on his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.**

**"I don't understand you, Kreacher," he said finally. "Voldemort tried to kill you, Regulus died to bring Voldemort down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to Voldemort through them ..."**

"He doesn't think like that Harry," Lily said motherly "House-elf think differently."

**"Harry, Kreacher doesn't think like that," said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. **

Lily blinked.

**"He's a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn't that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He's loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you're going to say," she went on as Harry began to protest, "that Regulus changed his mind ... but he doesn't seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family were all safest if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all."**

**"Sirius -"**

**"Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it's no good looking like that, you know it's true. Kreacher had been alone for such a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I'm sure 'Miss Cissy' and 'Miss Bella' were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favor and told them everything they wanted to know. I've said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves. Well, Voldemort did ... and so did Sirius."**

"That's not even –" James began but he didn't get to finish his sentence because Sirius cut across him nodding

"No, James she's right. And don't argue, don't tarnish my brothers memory." He sniffed, James looked startled but didn't comment anything else.

**Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius's death: I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human's ...**

"I didn't"

**"Kreacher," said Harry after a while, "when you feel up to it, er ... please sit up."**

Lily and Dumbledore smiled. "Well done Harry" Lily said proudly.

**It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.**

**"Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something," said Harry. He glanced at Hermione for assistance. He wanted to give the order kindly, but at the same time, he could not pretend that it was not an order. However, the change in his tone seemed to have gained her approval: She smiled encouragingly.**

Lily smiled encouragingly as well.

**"Kreacher, I want you, please, to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to find out where the locket - where Master Regulus's locket it. It's really important. We want to finish the work Master Regulus started, we want to - er - ensure that he didn't die in vain."**

Sirius smiled to himself. _Thank you Harry. _And then added _I won't forget you, Regulus. _

**Kreacher dropped his fists and looked up at Harry.**

**"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" he croaked.**

**"And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place," said Harry. "Do you think you could do that for us?"**

**As Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, Harry had a sudden inspiration. He pulled out Hagrid's purse and took out the fake Horcrux, the substitute locket in which Regulus had placed the note to Voldemort.**

**"Kreacher, I'd, er, like you to have this," he said, pressing the locket into the elf's hand. "This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you -"**

"I think that's a bit too far." Alice said confidently.

**"Overkill, mate," said Ron as the elf took one look at the locket, let out a howl of shock and misery, and threw himself back onto the ground.**

"Told you"

**It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely in his dirty blankets, and assured him that they would make its protection their first priority while he was away. He then made two low bows to Harry and Ron, and even gave a funny little spasm in Hermione's direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute, before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.**

Sirius turned so suddenly, everyone jumped. His eyes were red but when he spoke his voice was clear and had a bit of amusement "Wait, he actually was nice to a blood-traitor and a muggle-born" they nodded and his face broke in to a grin "I'd love to see what my dearest mother has to say about that"


	18. The Bribe

Everyone left, to go to bed after that. Some slept a wonderful sleep, but Sirius just kept thinking about his brother. _I'm sorry I left … I wish I could help … Please forgive me … _These were only some of things Sirius thought, He was so proud of his brother, he couldn't even explain. After a restless night, he got up along with everyone else and set off to read the book again, it was really starting to make a real impact on them, even Aberforth.

**If Kreacher could escape a lake full of Inferi, Harry was confident that the capture of Mundungus would take a few hours at most, and he prowled the house all morning in a state of high anticipation. However, Kreacher did not return that morning or even that afternoon. By nightfall, Harry felt discouraged and anxious, and a supper composed largely of moldy bread, upon which Hermione had tried a variety of unsuccessful Transfigurations, did nothing to help.**

**Kreacher did not return the following day, nor the day after that. However, two cloaked men had appeared in the square outside number twelve, and they remained there into the night, gazing in the direction of the house that they could not see.**

"Death Eaters, for sure," said Ron, as he, Harry, and Hermione watched from the drawing room windows. "Reckon they know we're in here?"

"You better hope now, I'm sure, they would find a way to get in" ****

"I don't think so," said Hermione, though she looked frightened, "or they'd have sent Snape in after us, wouldn't they?"

"D'you reckon he's been in here and has his tongue tied by Moody's curse?" asked Ron.

"Yes," said Hermione, "otherwise he'd have been able to tell that lot how to get in, wouldn't he? But they're probably watching to see whether we turn up. They know that Harry owns the house, after all."

"How do they -?" began Harry.

"Wizarding wills are examined by the Ministry, remember? They'll know Sirius left you the place."

Sirius huffed, he had been quiet all morning, because he'd been thinking of his brother, "They should mind their own business."****

The presence of the Death Eaters outside increased the ominous mood inside number twelve. They had not heard a word form anyone beyond Grimmauld Place since Mr. Weasley's Patronus, and the strain was starting to tell. Restless and irritable, Ron had developed an annoying habit of playing with the Deluminator in his pocket; This particularly infuriated Hermione, who was whiling away the wait for Kreacher by studying The Tales of Beedle the Bard and did not appreciate the way the lights kept flashing on and off.

"Will you stop it!" she cried on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all the light was sucked from the drawing room yet again.

A few people people chuckled. It must have been the Deluminator.****

"Sorry, sorry!" said Ron, clicking the Deluminator and restoring the lights. "I don't know I'm doing it!"

"Well, can't you find something useful to occupy yourself?"

"What, like reading kids' stories?"

"He has a point" James smirked. He knew Dumbledore must have left it for a reason, but Ron did have a point, they were after all kid's stories.

**"Dumbledore left me this book, Ron -"**

"- and he left me the Deluminator, maybe I'm supposed to use it!"

"Good logic" Sirius chuckled

"But I don't think he meant for him to use it like that" Lily finished his sentence sternly.

**Unable to stand the bickering, Harry slipped out of the room unnoticed by either of them. He headed downstairs toward the kitchen, which he kept visiting because he was sure that was where Kreacher was most likely to reappear. Halfway down the flight of stairs into the hall, however, he heard a tap on the front door, then metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain.**

"Oh, no, who is it?" Everyone looked paniced. ****

Every nerve in his body seemed to tauten: He pulled out his wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited. The door opened: He saw a glimpse of the lamplit square outside, and a cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind it. The intruder took a step forward, and Moody's voice asked, "Severus Snape?" Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall and rushed him, raising its dead hand.

"It was not I who killed you, Albus," said a quiet voice.

"Who is it?" Lily whispered eagerly, but also terrified. ****

The jinx broke: The dust-figure exploded again, and it was impossible to make out the newcomer through the dense gray cloud it left behind.

Harry pointed the wand into the middle of it.

"Don't move!"

He had forgotten the portrait of Mrs. Black: At the sound of his yell, the curtains hiding her flew open and she began to scream, "Mudbloods and filth dishonoring my house -"

Ron and Hermione came crashing down the stairs behind Harry, wands pointing, like his, at the unknown man now standing with his arms raised in the hall below 

Moody nearly smiled "I like these kids" ****

"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"

"Moony" Sirius and James smiled

Everyone else looked really relieved, and smiled too. ****

"Oh, thank goodness," said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs. Black instead; with a bang, the curtains swished shut again and silence fell. Ron too lowered his wand, but Harry did not.

"See, that boy knows how it's done." Moody told the group, a little disappointed in Ron.****

"Show yourself!" he called back.

Lupin moved forward into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender.

"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag."

"Wow, I taught him that?" Remus said impressed. Everyone smiled, at least Harry still had someone.****

"Oh, all right," said Harry, lowering his wand, "but I had to check, didn't I?"

"Speaking as your ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, Hermione, you shouldn't be so quick to lower your defenses."

Sirius and James started to grin "Ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, eh Professor Moony."

Everyone else started to smile too "I guess that's why he always calls me Lupin." He all nodded.

**They ran down the stairs towards him. Wrapped in a thick black traveling cloak, he looked exhausted, but pleased to see them.**

"No sign of Severus, then?" he asked.

"No," said Harry. "What's going on? Is everyone okay?"

"Yes," said Lupin, "but we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside -"

"We know -"

"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, Harry. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you, and I want to know what happened after you left the Burrow."

"Good, we'll hear about some stuff." Lily said sounding rather relieved.

**They descended into the kitchen, where Hermione pointed her wand at the grate. A fire sprang up instantly: It gave the illusion of coziness to the stark stone walls and glistened off the long wooden table. Lupin pulled a few butterbeers from beneath his traveling cloak and they sat down.**

"I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me," said Lupin. "So, you came straight here after the wedding?"

"So, they are following everyone" James stated, everyone nodded, that seemed about right.

**"No," said Harry, "only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a cafe on Tottenham Court Road."**

Lupin slopped most of his butterbeer down his front.

"What?"

"Exactly" Remus said, ignoring James and Sirius chuckling at him dropping butterbeer all down his front.

**They explained what had happened; when they had finished, Lupin looked aghast.**

"But how did they find you so quickly? It's impossible to track anyone who Apparates, unless you grab hold of them as they disappear."

"And it doesn't seem likely they were just strolling down Tottenham Court Road at the time, does it?" said Harry.

"Again, exactly" Remus expressed his frustration by hitting the table.****

"We wondered," said Hermione tentatively, "whether Harry could still have the Trace on him?"

"Impossible," said Lupin. Ron looked smug, and Harry felt hugely relieved. "Apart from anything else, they'd know for sure Harry was here if he still had the Trace on him, wouldn't they? But I can't see how they could have tracked you to Tottenham Court Road, that's worrying, really worrying."

He looked disturbed, but as far as Harry was concerned, that question could wait.

"Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's dad told us the family was safe."

"Well, Kingsley saved us," said Lupin. "Thanks to his warning most of the wedding guests were able to Disapparate before they arrived."

"Oh thank Merlin" Lily smiled to herself.****

"Were they Death Eaters or Ministry people?" interjected Hermione.

"A mixture; but to all intents and purposes they're the same thing now," said Lupin. "There were about a dozen of them, but they didn't know you were there, Harry. Arthur heard a rumor that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it's true, he didn't give you away."

A few looked impressed, even if the man didn't like Harry, he still didn't give them away. Lily, James and a lot of other people bellowed _Thank merlin _in their heads.****

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione; their expressions reflected the mingled shock and gratitude he felt. He had never liked Scrimgeour much, but if what Lupin said was true, the man's final act had been to try to protect Harry.

"I seem to like him slightly better" Alice sighed happily.****

"The Death Eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom," Lupin went on. "They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get too close - and then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours. They were trying to get information on you, Harry, but of course nobody apart from the Order knew that you had been there."

"At the same time that they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. No deaths," he added quickly, forestalling the question, "but they were rough. They burned down Dedalus Diggle's house, but as you know he wasn't there,

"My poor house." Dedalus sighed,

**and they used the Cruciarus Curse on Tonks's family. Again, trying to find out where you went after you visited them. They're all right - shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay."**

"I can imagine." Everyone said shaken a little, only a few of them had, had the Cruciarus curse, but from what they heard about it getting used on Harry, they don't want it.

**"The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?" Harry asked, remembering how effective these had been on the night he had crashed in Tonks's parents' garden.**

"What you've got to realize, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now," said Lupin. "They've got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we'd cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they'd come."

"Oh no …" a lot of people muttered. That war was much, much worse than this one at the moment.

**"And are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Harry's whereabouts out of people?" asked Hermione, an edge to her voice.**

"Well," Lupin said. He hesitated, then pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.

"What is it?" Molly asked warily.****

"Here," he said, pushing it across the table to Harry, "you'll know sooner or later anyway. That's their pretext for going after you."

Harry smoothed out the paper. A huge photograph of his own face filled the front page. He read the headline over it:

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

"They can't actually be serious" Sirius screamed, ignoring the joke line for a moment. He was fuming, and so was everyone else in the world but none more than Lily. James was clenching and unclenching his fists. It took several minutes for everyone to calm down.

**Ron and Hermione gave roars of outrage, but Harry said nothing. He pushed the newspaper away; he did not want to read anymore: He knew what it would say. Nobody but those who had been on top of the tower when Dumbledore died knew who had really killed him and, as Rita Skeeter had already told the Wizarding world, Harry had been seen running from the place moments after Dumbledore had fallen.**

Remus spoke up "That make's a reasonable explanation." When everyone glared at him, he explained "Think about it, pretend you didn't know Harry, think about what you would think if you didn't know how close Dumbledore and him were and when Dumbledore died, apparently Harry ran from that spot?" They all nodded understanding what he was saying but still fuming.

**"I'm sorry, Harry," Lupin said.**

"So Death Eaters have taken over the Daily Prophet too?" asked Hermione furiously.

Lupin nodded.

"But surely people realize what's going on?"

"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," said Lupin.

"The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."

"Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister of Magic?" asked Ron.

Lupin laughed.

"He doesn't need to, Ron. Effectively, he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk at the Ministry? His puppet, Thicknesse, is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort free to extend his power beyond the Ministry."

"That is such a bad thought … Voldemort Minister." Nearly everyone shuddered "Oh dear Merlin"****

"Naturally many people have deduced what has happened: There has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is the point: They whisper. They daren't confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust; they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear."

Everyone nodded, knowing how effective that could be, some of them even thanked merlin, they weren't alive for this war.****

"And this dramatic change in Ministry policy," said Harry, "involves warning the Wizarding world against me instead of Voldemort?"

"It just can't get worse." James snapped, ****

"That's certainly a part of it," said Lupin, "and it is a masterstroke. Now that Dumbledore is dead, you - the Boy Who Lived - were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in the old hat's death, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you."

Some people were shaking their heads in disgust. They couldn't believe it. Actually they could, but they didn't want to.

**"Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns."**

Lupin pointed at the Daily Prophet.

"Look at page two."

Hermione turned the pages with much the same expression of distaste she had when handling Secrets of the Darkest Art.

"Muggle-born Register!" she read aloud. "'The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called "Muggle-borns" the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets.

Lily jumped up from her seat and started pasing "That is just –" then she screamed in frustration. ****

"'Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force.

"'The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.'"

"People won't let this happen," said Ron.

"It is happening, Ron," said Lupin. "Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."

Most people had their heads in their hands. "Can we please get this talk over with." James grumble, his voice getting louder and louder.****

"But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic?" said Ron. "It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"

"Exactly Ron, Exactly" He was now shouting.****

"I know," said Lupin. "Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close Wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment."

Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, "What if purebloods and halfbloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell everyone Hermione's my cousin -"

"That's so sweet" Molly cooed. _Such a nice boy, and a nice girl._ ****

Hermione covered Ron's hand with hers and squeezed it.

**"Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you -"**

"You won't have a choice," said Ron fiercely, gripping her hand back. "I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it."

"That would be a big tree, Ron" Arther laughed slightly.****

Hermione gave a shaky laugh.

"Ron, as we're on the run with Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was going back to school it would be different. What's Voldemort planning for Hogwarts?" she asked Lupin.

"Oh, no I completely forgot about that" Lily squeaked, sounding terrified.****

"Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard," he replied. "That was announced yesterday. It's a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred. This way, Voldemort will have the whole Wizarding population under his eye from a young age. And it's also another way of weeding out Muggle-borns, because students must be given Blood Status - meaning that they have proven to the Ministry that they are of Wizard descent - before they are allowed to attend."

A lot of people were taking deep breaths, Dumbledore was furious even though he was hiding it well. McGonagall promised herself, she would stay there and take care of all the students.****

Harry felt sickened and angry: At this moment, excited eleven-year-olds would be poring over stacks of newly purchased spell-books, unaware that they would never see Hogwarts, perhaps never see their families again either.

Molly started sobbing a little louder, than she had been, so the people who didn't notice before looked at her. Lily had tears in her eyes, that was just a terrible, horrible but true thought.

**"It's... it's..." he muttered, struggling to find words that did justice to the horror of his thoughts, but Lupin said quietly, "I know."**

Lupin hesitated.

"I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Harry, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you a mission."

"He did," Harry replied, "and Ron and Hermione are in on it and they're coming with me."

"Can you confide in me what the mission is?"

Harry looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but graying hair, and wished that he could return a different answer.

**"I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore didn't tell you I don't think I can."**

"He's right Mr Lupin, I'm sorry" Dumbledore smiled at him. He waved his hand

"It's ok, it doesn't matter, this is in the future."****

"I thought you'd say that," said Lupin, looking disappointed. "But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to."

Harry hesitated. It was a very tempting offer, though how they would be able to keep their mission secret from Lupin if he were with them all the time he could not imagine.

"Yeah, I guess that would be hard" he admitted.****

Hermione, however, looked puzzled.

"But what about Tonks?" she asked.

"What about her?" said Lupin.

"Here it comes" Remus, Sirius and James all said in union, everyone looked amused and confused.

"What?" but they waved them away.

**"Well," said Hermione, frowning, "you're married! How does she feel about you going away with us?"**

"Tonks will be perfectly safe," said Lupin, "She'll be at her parents' house."

"Who, incase you haven't notice, was tortured recently Moony" Sirius grumpled. He knew where this was going, he really wished Moony gave up, but apparently not.****

There was something strange in Lupin's tone, it was almost cold. There was also something odd in the idea of Tonks remaining hidden at her parents' house; she was, after all, a member of the Order and, as far as Harry knew, was likely to want to be in the thick of the action.

Remus closed his eyes, he was wondering how bad things were going to get. He could feel every eye on him.

**"Remus," said Hermione tentatively, "is everything all right... you know... between you and -"**

"Everything is fine, thank you," said Lupin pointedly.

"Remus" Lily snapped

"Lils, it's about to get much worse" he guessed leaning back in the chair. Everyone looked at him closely so he explained in more detail "A hot heated argument, is about to start" Everyone still looked confused but left it alone.

**Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lupin said, with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, "Tonks is going to have a baby."**

Everyone looked at Remus, that was something Sirius and James hidn't expect but they both knew it was going to be worse than they expected now, now that a baby was involved. And it also said 'with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant' they tried their best not to frown to much.

Everyone started shouting things like "Congratulations, You deserve it, Oh, that's wonderful" but Remus didn't feel any of them should fit. He looked at James and Sirius and knew, that they knew what he was thinking. They shook their heads, they were happy for their friend but they weren't because their friend wasn't happy.

James finally had enough of everyone, so decided to speak up "Don't get too excited, this wont end well" he claimed with a hint of annoyance and anger at his friend. Remus was trying to abandon Tonks and an unborn baby. Sirius was trying not to shout, not because of Remus, because he knew how Remus had always felt but this was his little cousin, he loved and cared about. The thought of her and her an unborn baby getting abandoned. ****

"Oh, how wonderful!" squealed Hermione.

"Excellent!" said Ron enthusiastically.

"Congratulations," said Harry.

Lupin gave an artificial smile that was more like a grimace, then said, "So... do you accept my offer? Will three become four? I cannot believe that Dumbledore would have disapproved, he appointed me your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, after all. And I must tell you that I believe we are facing magic many of us have never encountered or imagined."

Everyone, expect James and Sirius, stared at Remus in shock, didn't he just say he was having a baby. Why wasn't he staying with her? ****

Ron and Hermione both looked at Harry.

"Just - just to be clear," he said. "You want to leave Tonks at her parents' house and come away with us?"

"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," said Lupin. He spoke with a finality bordering on indifference: "Harry, I'm sure James would have wanted me to stick with you."

"Well," said Harry slowly, "I'm not. I'm pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren't sticking with your own kid, actually."

"Oh no, Harry … you have hit a nerve" James mumbled. This was just getting worse and worse. Remus groaned and leaned back in his chair. No one understood what he was talking about, but they guessed it wasn't good

**Lupin's face drained of color. The temperature in the kitchen might have dropped ten degrees. Ron**

**stared around the room as though he had been bidden to memorize it, while Hermione's eyes swiveled backward and forward from Harry to Lupin.**

A few people bit their lip to stop them asking where this was going, because they could see the three friends dreading it.****

"You don't understand," said Lupin at last.

"Explain, then," said Harry.

Lupin swallowed.

"I - I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against my better judgment and have regretted it very much every since."

Everyone stared at Remus "How can you say that? So you don't love her?" Lily bellowed astonished at Remus

He sighed "I don't know if I love her, but if I married her, I would say yes, I do. But trust me on this, what I just said, will most likely the nicest thing I'll say or do" then sunk more in to the chair.****

"I see," said Harry, "so you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?"

Lupin sprang to his feet: His chair toppled over backward, and he glared at them so fiercely that Harry saw, for the first time ever, the shadow of the wolf upon his human face.

"Not good, really not good." Sirius said rubbing his head. He had only seen that once before, and that was when he played that prank on Snape. No one else had seen that, James had been there when it happened but it wasn't bad since it wasn't directed at him. No one knew what to say, this wasn't the Remus they knew, but judging the friends reactions, it's happened before and to most likely Sirius. Dumbledore had an idea when Sirius had saw that.****

"Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!"

Lupin kicked aside the chair he had overturned.

"You have only ever seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore's protection at Hogwarts! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child - the child -"

"Somehow I doubt her family is disgusted, that just you and your excuses" Sirius told him, and Remus nodded knowing that was most likely true.****

Lupin actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged.

No body was sure what to do, Remus seemed like he was a completely differen't person here.

**"My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it - how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"**

Everyone was shocked at what Remus thought. ****

"Remus!" whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. "Don't say that - how could any child be ashamed of you?"

"Oh, I don't know, Hermione," said Harry. "I'd be pretty ashamed of him."

"Oh, that's going to burn" Remus groaned, ****

Harry did not know where his rage was coming from, but it had propelled him to his feet too. Lupin looked as though Harry had hit him.

Remus nodded _Yes, that's what it would feel like._

**"If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad," Harry said, "what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father's in the Order? My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?"**

"I hate to say this, Moony, but I agree with him" James nodded.

"So, do I Prongs, So do I" Remus reassured him. And he smiled back, least his friend knows what he is doing wrong, James thought.

**"How - how dare you?" said Lupin. "This is not about a desire for - for danger or personal glory - how dare you suggest such a -"**

"I think you're feeling a bit of a daredevil," Harry said, "You fancy stepping into Sirius's shoes -"

"Oh no, he just took that way to far. I know Remus would never hurt Harry, but now I'm not sure, I never thought Harry'd say that, I mean, I died … Remus is alone, and that was a bit … well you know. He won't take it well." Sirius groaned, dreading what would come up, everyone was looking a little anxious, especially Remus. ****

"Harry, no!" Hermione begged him, but he continued to glare into Lupin's livid face.

"I'd never have believed this," Harry said. "The man who taught me to fight dementors - a coward."

A few people cringed, they knew Harry crossed the line a while ago, but that was way to far.

**Lupin drew his wand so fast that Harry had barely reached for his own; there was a loud bang and he felt himself flying backward as if punched; as he slammed into the kitchen wall and slid to the floor, he glimpsed the tail of Lupin's cloak disappearing around the door.**

"Please say it's over?" Remus pleaded Dumbledore who nodded, Remus let out a breathe, he didn't like people see the werewolf side over him. Everyone looked at him in horror and shock, even Lily. She never imagined that side, of Remus before.****

"Remus, Remus, come back!" Hermione cried, but Lupin did not respond. A moment later they heard the front door slam.

"Harry!" wailed Hermione. "How could you?"

"It was easy," said Harry. He stood up, he could feel a lump swelling where his head had hit the wall. He was still so full of anger he was shaking.

"Don't look at me like that!" he snapped at Hermione.

"Don't you start on her!" snarled Ron.

"No - no - we mustn't fight!" said Hermione, launching herself between them.

"Yes Hermione, stop them from fighting over it." Lily smiled taking a deep breathe.****

"You shouldn't have said that stuff to Lupin," Ron told Harry.

"He had it coming to him," said Harry. Broken images were racing each other through his mind: Sirius falling through the veil; Dumbledore suspended, broken, in midair; a flash of green light and his mother's voice, begging for mercy...

Everyone stiffened. Remus hated himself for making Harry see them things, All his loved one's dying. He didn't like what he had just done, not at all.****

"Parents," said Harry, "shouldn't leave their kids unless - unless they've got to."

Remus nodded, he always agreed with that, but it seemed his future self didn't want to take that advice. He was angry with himself again.****

"Harry -" said Hermione, stretching out a consoling hand, but he shrugged it off and walked away, his eyes on the fire Hermione had conjured. He had once spoken to Lupin out of that fireplace, seeking reassurance about James, and Lupin had consoled him. Now Lupin's tortured white face seemed to swim in the air before him. He felt a sickening surge of remorse. Neither Ron nor Hermione spoke, but Harry felt sure that they were looking at each other behind his back, communicating silently.

He turned around and caught them turning hurriedly away form each other.

"I know I shouldn't have called him a coward."

No one said anything, but they thought that Remus was being a bit of a coward.

**"No, you shouldn't," said Ron at once.**

"But he's acting like one."

"I have to agree with you Harry, I know I was" Remus claimed out load. "But I think he just talked sense in to me, I think I'll go back to her now" he smiled a bit at the end, _I really hope I'm right._****

"All the same..." said Hermione.

"I know," said Harry. "But if it makes him go back to Tonks, it'll be worth it, won't it?"

"Yes" All three friends said together. ****

He could not keep the plea out of his voice. Hermione looked sympathetic, Ron uncertain. Harry looked down at his feet, thinking of his father. Would James have backed Harry in what he had said to Lupin, or would he have been angry at how his son had treated his old friend?

"I would have backed you up, Harry" James assured the book. ****

The silent kitchen seemed to hum with the shock of the recent scene and with Ron and Hermione's unspoken reproaches. The Daily Prophet Lupin had brought was still lying on the table, Harry's own face staring up at the ceiling from the front page. He walked over to it and sat down, opened the paper at random, and pretended to read. He could not take in the words; his mind was still too full of the encounter with Lupin. He was sure that Ron and Hermione had resumed their silent communications on the other side of the Prophet. He turned a page loudly, and Dumbledore's name leapt out at him. It was a moment or two before he took in the meaning of the photograph, which showed a family group. Beneath the photograph were the words: The Dumbledore family, left to right: Albus; Percival, holding newborn Ariana; Kendra, and Aberforth.

Aberforth and Albus smiled a bit but then frowned, they didn't want to go though this again. Everyone seemed to sense this, so they didn't say anything.

**His attention caught, Harry examined the picture more carefully. Dumbledore's father, Percival, was a good-looking man with eyes that seemed to twinkle even in this faded old photograph. The baby, Ariana, was a little longer than a loaf of bread and no more distinctive-looking. The mother, Kendra, had jet black hair pulled into a high bun. Her face had a carved quality about it. Harry thought of photos of Native Americans he'd seen as he studied her dark eyes, high cheekbones, and straight nose, formally composed above a high-necked silk gown. Albus and Aberforth wore matching lacy collared jackets and had identical, shoulder-length hairstyles. Albus looked several years older, but otherwise the two boys looked very alike, **

"Yeah, we used to be like identical twins" Aberforth mumbled unhappily. That just made more people think he was like his big _brilliant _brother.

**for this was before Albus's nose had been broken and before he started wearing glasses.**

**The family looked quite happy and normal, smiling serenely up out of the newspaper. Baby Ariana's arm waved vaguely out of her shawl. Harry looked above the picture and saw the headline.**

**EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM UPCOMING  
BIOGRAPHY OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE  
by Rita Skeeter**

Everyone looked in panic, what was going to be said.****

Thinking it could hardly make him feel any worse than he already did, Harry began to read:

"Why do I have a feeling, it's going to?"

**Proud and haughty, Kendra Dumbledore could not bear to remain in Mould-on-the-Wold after her husband Percival's well-publicized arrest and imprisonment in Azkaban. She therefore decided to uproot the family and relocate to Godric's Hollow, the village that was later to gain fame as the scene of Harry Potter's strange escape from You-Know-Who.**

Some grunted at this fact.

**Like Mould-on-the-Wold, Godric's Hollow was home to a number of Wizarding families, but as Kendra knew none of them, she would be spared the curiosity about her husband's crime she had faced in her former village. By repeatedly rebuffing the friendly advances of her new Wizarding neighbors, she soon ensured that her family was left well alone.**

"Slammed the door in my face when I went around to welcome her with a batch of homemade Cauldron Cakes," says Bathilda Bagshot.

"That's not true." Aberforth growled, looking at Albus, who shook his head, no it wasn't.

**"The first year they were there I only ever saw the two boys. Wouldn't have known there was a daughter if I hadn't been picking Plangentines by moonlight the winter after they moved in, and saw Kendra leading Ariana out into the back garden. Walked her round the lawn once, keeping a firm grip on her, then took her back inside. Didn't know what to make of it."**

"Well you shouldn't judge, you shouldn't make anything of it." Aberforth continued to growled things under his breathe, too low for anyone to make out.

**It seems that Kendra thought the move to Godric's Hollow was the perfect opportunity to hide Ariana once and for all, something she had probably been planning for years. The timing was significant. Ariana was barely seven years old when she vanished from sight, and seven is the age by which most experts agree that magic will have revealed itself, if present. Nobody now alive remembers Ariana ever demonstrating even the slightest sign of magical ability. It seems clear, therefore, that Kendra made a decision to hide her daughter's existence rather than suffer the shame of admitting that she had produced a Squib.**

"That is not true" a very agitated Aberforth claimed, Dumblefore seemed like he wanted to shout, took a deep breathe and continued.

** Moving away from the friends and neighbors who knew Ariana would, of course, make imprisoning her all the easier. The tiny number of people who henceforth knew of Ariana's existence could be counted upon to keep the secret, including her two brothers, who had deflected awkward questions with the answer their mother had taught them. "My sister is too frail for school."**

"That's because she was" Dumbledore and Aberforth both answered at the same time but didn't say anything else.

**Next week: Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts - the Prizes and the Pretense.  
Harry had been wrong: What he had read had indeed made him feel worse. He looked back at the photograph of the apparently happy family. Was it true? How could he find out? He wanted to go to Godric's Hollow, even if Bathilda was in no fit state to talk to him: he wanted to visit the place where he and Dumbledore had both lost loved ones. He was in the process of lowering the newspaper, to ask Ron's and Hermione's opinions, when a deafening crack echoed around the kitchen.  
For the first time in three days Harry had forgotten all about Kreacher. **

"Oh yes, he's back" Alice noted sounding very relieved about it, but it was mostly so they didn't have to hear more about the Dumbledore sister.

**His immediate thought was that Lupin had burst back into the room, and for a split second, he did not take in the mass of struggling limbs that had appeared out of thin air right beside his chair. He hurried to his feet as Kreacher disentangled himself and, bowing low to Harry, croaked, "Kreacher has returned with the thief Mundungus Fletcher, Master."**

"Wow, he seemed to respect Harry, he didn't even insult or anything" Sirius interrupted looking amazed.

**Mundungus scrambled up and pulled out his wand; Hermione, however, was too quick for him.**

"Expelliarmus!"

Mundungus's wand soared into the air, and Hermione caught it. Wild-eyed, Mundungus dived for the stairs. Ron rugby-tackled him and Mundungus hit the stone floor with a muffled crunch.

"Well done Ron" Arther laughed at his son.

**"What?" he bellowed, writhing in his attempts to free himself from Ron's grip. "Wha've I done? Setting a bleedin' 'house-elf on me, what are you playing at, wha've I done, lemme go, lemme go, of -"**

"You're not in much of a position to make threats," said Harry. He threw aside the newspaper, crossed the kitchen in a few strides, and dropped to his knees beside Mundungus, who stopped struggling and looked terrified. 

"I wonder if he's scary, when he's angry"

**Ron got up, panting, and watched as Harry pointed his wand deliberately at Mundungus's nose. Mundungus stank of stale sweat and tobacco smoke. His hair was matted and his robes stained.**

**"Kreacher apologizes for the delay in bringing the thief, Master," croaked the elf. "Fletcher knows**

**how to avoid capture, has many hidey-holes and accomplices. Nevertheless, Kreacher cornered the thief in the end."**

"You've done really well, Kreacher," said Harry, and the elf bowed low.

A few people looked amazed at this, but mostly Sirius "But-but he" he stuttered.

**"Right, we've got a few questions for you," Harry told Mundungus, who shouted at once.**

"I panicked, okay? I never wanted to come along, no offense, mate, but I never volunteered to die for you, an' that was bleedin' You-Know-Who come flying at me, anyone woulda got outta there. I said all along I didn't wanna do it -"

"He thinks this is about letting Mad-eye die." Remus nodded.****

"For your information, none of the rest of us Disapparated," said Hermione.

"Well, you're a bunch of bleedin' 'eroes then, aren't you, but I never pretended I was up for killing meself -"

"To be fair, he did say at the start, he didn't want to do it. But Mad-eye made him" Frank point out, but no one acknowledged him.

**"We're not interested in why you ran out on Mad-Eye," said Harry, moving his wand a little closer to Mundungus's baggy, bloodshot eyes. "We already knew you were an unreliable bit of scum."**

A few sniggered at that.

**"Well then, why the 'ell am I being 'unted down by 'ouse-elves? Or is this about them goblets again? I ain't got none of 'em left, or you could 'ave 'em -"**

"It's not about the goblets either, although you're getting warmer," said Harry. "Shut up and listen."

"You tell him Harry." Sirius cheered.****

It felt wonderful to have something to do, someone of whom he could demand some small portion of truth. Harry's wand was now so close to the bridge of Mundungus's nose that Mundungus had gone cross-eyed trying to keep it in view.

"When you cleaned out this house of anything valuable," Harry began, but Mundungus interrupted him again.

"Sirius never cared about any of the junk -"

There was the sound of pattering fee, a blaze of shining copper, an echoing clang, and a shriek of agony; Kreacher had taken a run at Mundungus and hit him over the head with a saucepan.

Everyone burst out laughing. "I might actually like him, you know that … my hatred is going down a bit, I'm just at dislike" Sirius chatted to James, to everyone's amusment.

**"Call 'im off, call 'im off, 'e should be locked up!" screamed Mundungus, cowering as Kreacher raised the heavy-bottomed pan again.**

"Kreacher, no!" shouted Harry.

Kreacher's thin arms trembled with the weight of the pan, still held aloft.

"Perhaps just one more, Master Harry, for luck?"

"Oh, I can't believe he changed him. That's just – " Sirius was sitting wide eyed, "I'd love for my mother to hear this" ****

Ron laughed.

"We need him conscious, Kreacher, but if he needs persuading, you can do the honors," said Harry.

"Thank you very much, Master," said Kreacher with a bow, and he retreated a short distance, his great pale eyes still fixed upon Mundungus with loathing.

"Us too Kreacher, us too" Lily sighed but she was smiling, she was happy about her son was being nice to Kreacher.****

"When you stripped this house of all the valuables you could find," Harry began again, "you took a bunch of stuff from the kitchen cupboard. There was a locket there." Harry's mouth was suddenly dry: He could sense Ron and Hermione's tension and excitement too. "What did you do with it?"

"Why?" asked Mundungus. "Is it valuable?"

"You've still got it!" cried Hermione.

"No, he hasn't," said Ron shrewdly. "He's wondering whether he should have asked more money for it."

"That rotten piece of scum" Sirius cried****

"More?" said Mundungus. "That wouldn't have been effing difficult...bleedin' gave it away, di'n' I? No choice."

"What do you mean?"

"I was selling in Diagon Alley and she come up to me and asks if I've got a license for trading in magical artifacts. Bleedin' snoop. She was gonna fine me, but she took a fancy to the locket an' told me she'd take it and let me off that time, and to fink meself lucky."

"Who was this woman?" asked Harry.

"I dunno, some Ministry hag."

Mundungus considered for a moment, brow wrinkled.

"Little woman. Bow on top of 'er head."

He frowned and then added, "Looked like a toad."

A few sniggered at someone looking like a toad. ****

Harry dropped his wand: It hit Mundungus on the nose and shot red sparks into his eyebrows, which ignited.

"Aquamenti!" screamed Hermione, and a jet of water streamed from her wand, engulfing a spluttering and choking Mundungus.

"I really don't care if he chokes" Sirius stated, but he didn't say it harshly like he should have with that sentence.****

Harry looked up and saw his own shock reflected in Ron's and Hermione's faces. The scars on the back of his right hand seemed to be tingling again.

Lily paled, then the colour rose with fury, James looked at her alarmed "What? What's wrong?"

"It was her." Was all she was able to say, she looked like she was about to explode with fury. No one, apart from Remus and Dumbledore knew what she meant.

"It was her, who gave him them scars" everyone understood more when Remus explained it more.


	19. Magic Is Might

_All the bold writing belongs to JK Rowling. Character's are all her's. None of it mine, expect the normal writing._

* * *

**As August wore on, the square of unkempt grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place shriveled in the sun until it was brittle and brown. The inhabitants of number twelve were never seen by anyone in the surrounding houses, and nor was number twelve itself. The muggles who lived in Grimmauld Place had long since accepted the amusing mistake in the numbering that had caused number eleven to sit beside number thirteen.**

"Well, that sort of stupid, you know. I thought people would be a little suspicious" Sirius muttered

"Why would they, if they didn't know about the magical world, then that's what they would think … it was just a mistake," Lily corrected him

**And yet the square was now attracting a trickle of visitors who seemed to find the anomaly most intriguing. Barely a day passed without one or two people arriving in Grimmauld Place with no other purpose, or so it seemed, than to lean against the railings facing numbers eleven and thirteen, watching the join between the two houses. **

"Seriously? They are sort of making it a little obvious" Frank gave a dry laugh

"They don't care," most muttered back

**The lurkers were never the same two days running, although they all seemed to share a dislike for normal clothing. Most of the Londoners who passed them were used to eccentric dressers and took little notice, though occasionally one of them might glance back, wondering why anyone would wear cloaks in this heat.**

"See too obvious,"

**The watchers seemed to be gleaning little satisfaction from their vigil. Occasionally one of them started forward excitedly, as if they had seen something interesting at last, only to fall back looking disappointed.**

"Aw, poor you" Sirius muttered with deep sarcasm.

**On the first day of September there were more people lurking in the square than ever before. Half a dozen men in long cloaks stood silent and watchful, gazing as ever at houses eleven and thirteen, but the thing for which they were waiting still appeared elusive. **

"What do they expect? Harry to walk out the front door and wave" Remus said shaking his head. Typical, stupid Death Eaters.

**As evening drew in, bringing with it an unexpected gust of chilly rain for the first time in weeks, there occurred one of those inexplicable moments when they appeared to have seen something interesting. The man with the twisted face pointed and his closest companion, a podgy, pallid man, started forward, but a moment later they had relaxed into their previous state of inactivity, looking frustrated and disappointed.**

"Yeah, if you keep thinking you are seeing things, you will get a bit, frustrated and disappointed." Sirius said slowly as if talking to a five year old.

**Meanwhile, inside number twelve, Harry had just entered the hall. He had nearly lost his balance as he Apparated onto the top step just outside the front door, and thought that the Death Eaters might have caught a glimpse of his momentarily exposed elbow. **

Sirius laughed "Oh, so they did see things … he was right there and they missed him." Harry had a way of escaping them.

**Shutting the front door carefully behind him, he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, draped it over his arm, and hurried along the gloomy hallway toward the door that led to the basement, a stolen copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in his hand.**

**The usual low whisper of "Severus Snape" greeted him, the chill wind swept him, and his tongue rolled up for a moment.**

**"I didn't kill you," he said, once it had unrolled, then held his breath as the dusty jinx-figure exploded. **

"That would get so annoying" Alice huffed, imagining having to do that every day, nearly everyone agreed,

**He waited until he was halfway down the stairs to the kitchen, out of earshot of Mrs. Black and clear of the dust cloud, before calling, "I've got news, and you won't like it."**

Lily moaned, there was always new, and she never liked it. "Why? Why could Harry have a

**The kitchen was almost unrecognizable. Every surface now shone; Copper pots and pans had been burnished to a rosy glow; the wooden tabletop gleamed; the goblets and plates already laid for dinner glinted in the light from a merrily blazing fire, on which a cauldron was simmering. **

Sirius looked deeply confused "I thought the house was damp and worn out, and just disgusting?" everyone thought so too … they had all it had just been abandoned.

**Nothing in the room, however, was more dramatically different than the house-elf who now came hurrying toward Harry, dressed in a snowy-white towel, his ear hair as clean and fluffy as cotton wool, Regulus's locket bouncing on his thin chest.**

Sirius didn't know what to say, he shook his head "That is all it took? Why didn't I just be nice to the stupid elf." _I might still be alive, if I did. _

**"Shoes off, if you please, Master Harry, and hands washed before dinner," croaked Kreacher, seizing the Invisibility Cloak and slouching off to hang it on a hook on the wall, beside a number of old-fashioned robes that had been freshly laundered.**

"That's just … just. Never mind" Sirius expressed his disbelief but stuttering. Everyone shared a few chuckles.

**"What's happened?" Ron asked apprehensively. He are Hermione had been pouring over a sheaf of scribbled notes and hand drawn maps that littered the end of the long kitchen table, but now they watched Harry as he strode toward them and threw down the newspaper on top of their scattered parchment.**

**A large picture of a familiar, hook-nosed, black-haired man stared up at them all, beneath a headline that read:**

**SEVERUS SNAPE CONFIRMED**

**AS HOGWARTS HEADMASTER**

Everyone paled "No, no, no, no, no" everyone muttered.

"Snape Headmaster?" Sirius blinked, he shared a dark look with James and then shuddered.

**"No!" said Ron and Hermione loudly.**

**Hermione was quickest; she snatched up the newspaper and began to read the accompanying story out loud.**

**"Severus Snape, long-standing Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry, was today appointed headmaster in the most important of several staffing changes at the ancient school. Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrow will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."**

Everyone was paling again, they were death eaters. What was Hogwarts going to be like? It was going to be horrible for everyone.

**"'I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values - Like committing murder and cutting off people's ears, I suppose! Snape, headmaster! Snape in Dumbledore's study - Merlin's pants!" she shrieked, making both Harry and Ron jump. She leapt up from the table and hurtled from the room, shouting as she went, "I'll be back in a minute!"**

**"'Merlin's pants'?" repeated Ron, looking amused. "She must be upset." He pulled the newspaper toward him and perused the article about Snape.**

"What was that about?" Aberforth asked his brother, looking deeply confused, to his surprise his brother shrugged.

**"The other teachers won't stand for this, McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout all know the truth, they know how Dumbledore died. They won't accept Snape as headmaster. And who are these Carrows?"**

**"Death Eaters," said Harry. "There are pictures of them inside. They were at the top of the tower when Snape killed Dumbledore, so it's all friends together.**

Everyone looked a little sick, they were all in the one place now, and teaching children none the less.

** And," Harry went on bitterly, drawing up a chair, "I can't see that the other teachers have got any choice but to stay. If the Ministry and Voldemort are behind Snape, it'll be a choice between staying and teaching, or a nice few years in Azkaban - and that's if they're lucky. I reckon they'll stay to try and protect the students."**

McGonagall nodded matter-of-factly, they was no way she'd leave the children with them.

**Kreacher came bustling to the table with a large curcen in his hands, and ladled out soup into pristine bowls, whistling between his teeth as he did so.**

Everyone looked shocked at the change in Kreacher, but no one more than Sirius, since this wasn't the Kreacher he had grown up with.

**"Thanks, Kreacher," said Harry, flipping over the Prophet so as not to have to look at Snape's face. "Well, at least we know exactly where Snape is now."**

"I guess that's a good thing" Moody grunted, looking at the bright side of things for once.

**He began to spoon soup into his mouth. The quality of Kreacher's cooking had improved dramatically ever since he had been given Regulus's locket: Today's French onion was as good as Harry had ever tasted.**

"If I ever see Kreacher again, I don't think I'll ever be mean to him" Sirius told the group.

**"There are still a load of Death Eaters watching this house," he told Ron as he ate, "more than usual. It's like they're hoping we'll march out carrying our school trunks and head off for the Hogwarts Express."**

"Exactly"

**Ron glanced at his watch.**

**"I've been thinking about that all day. It left nearly six hours ago. Weird, not being on it, isn't it?"**

**In his mind's eye Harry seemed to see the scarlet steam engine as he and Ron had once followed it by air, shimmering between fields and hills, a rippling scarlet caterpillar. He was sure Ginny, Neville, and Luna were sitting together at this moment, perhaps wondering where he, Ron, and Hermione were, or debating how best to undermine Snape's new regime.**

"Most likely, will be"

**"They nearly saw me coming back in just now," Harry said, "I landed badly on the top step, and the Cloak slipped."**

**"I do that every time. Oh, here she is," Ron added, craning around in his seat to watch Hermione reentering the kitchen. "And what in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y Fronts was that about?"**

**"I remembered this," Hermione panted.**

**She was carrying a large, framed picture, which she now lowered to the floor before seizing her small, beaded bag from the kitchen sideboard. Opening it, she proceeded to force the painting inside and despite the fact that it was patently too large to fit inside the tiny bag, within a few seconds it had vanished, like so much ease, into the bag's capacious depths.**

"Oh" Dumbledore chuckled, but no one else understood.

**"Phineas Nigellus," Hermione explained as she threw the bag onto the kitchen table with the usual sonorous, clanking crash.**

**"Sorry?" said Ron, but Harry understood. The painted image of Phineas Nigellus Black was able to travel between his portrait in Grimmauld Place and the one that hung in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts: the circular cower-top room where Snape was no doubt sitting right now, in triumphant possession of Dumbledore's collection of delicate, silver magical instruments, the stone Pensieve, the Sorting Hat and, unless it and been moved elsewhere, the sword of Gryffindor.**

"So, he could spy" Remus understood "Smart girl." Everyone looked a little impressed.

**"Snape could send Phineas Nigellus to look inside this house for him," Hermione explained to Ron as she resumed her seat. "But let him try it now, all Phineas Nigellus will be able to see is the inside of my handbag."**

**"Good thinking!" said Ron, looking impressed.**

**"Thank you," smiled Hermione, pulling her soup toward her. "So, Harry, what else happened today?"**

**"Nothing," said Harry. "Watched the Ministry entrance for seven hours. No sign of her. Saw your dad though, Ron. He looks fine."**

Arther smiled, it was nice to know he was ok.

**Ron nodded his appreciation of this news. The had agreed that it was far too dangerous to try and communicate with Mr. Weasley while he walked in and out of the Ministry, because he was always surrounded by other Ministry workers. It was, however, reassuring to catch these glimpses of him, even if he did look very strained and anxious.**

"Well of course I would. Voldemort took over the Ministry" He pointed out.

**"Dad always told us most Ministry people use the Floo Network to get to work," Ron said. "That's why we haven't seen Umbridge, she'd never walk, she'd think she's too important."**

**"And what about that funny old witch and that little wizard in the navy robes?" Hermione asked.**

**"Oh yeah, the bloke from Magical Maintenance," said Ron."How do you know he works for Magical Maintenance?" Hermione asked, her soupspoon suspended in midair.**

**"Dad said everyone from Magical Maintenance wears navy blue robes."**

"Yeah, they do" Dumbledore nodded, and Arther smiled.

**"But you never told us that!"**

Sirius looked a little puzzled. "What it important?"

**Hermione dropped her spoon and pulled toward her the sheaf of notes and maps that she and Ron had been examining when Harry had entered the kitchen.**

**"There's nothing in here about navy blue robes, nothing!" she said, flipping feverishly through the pages.**

**"Well, does it really matter?"**

**"Ron, it all matters! If we're going to get into the Ministry and not give ourselves away when they're bound to be on the lookout for intruders, every little detail matters! We've been over and over this, I mean, what's the point of all these reconnaissance trips if you aren't even bothering to tell us -"**

"Wait, hold up … they are going to break in to the Ministry. They the most unsafe place for them right now." Lily told everyone a little frantic. They nodded

"I know Lils, but they will be ok, you know that," he whispered in her ears, she seemed to calm down a little but not much.

**"Blimey, Hermione, I forget one little thing -"**

**"You do realize, don't you, that there's probably no more dangerous place in the whole world for us to be right now than the Ministry of -"**

"Exactly" Lily said throwing up her hands, to prove her point.

**"I think we should do it tomorrow," said Harry.**

**Hermione stopped dead, her jaw hanging; Ron choked a little over his soup.**

Sirius sniggered.

**"Tomorrow?" repeated Hermione. "You aren't serious, Harry?"**

**"I am," said Harry. "I don't think we're going to be much better prepared than we are now even if we skulk around the Ministry entrance for another month. The longer we put it off, the farther away that locket could be. There's already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away; the thing doesn't open."**

Moody grunted "I like this kid. He proved a good point, sometimes you can over plan." Everyone nodded.

**"Unless," said Ron, "she's found a way of opening it and she's now possessed."**

**"Wouldn't make any difference to her, she was so evil in the first place," Harry shrugged.**

_I wonder how bad she really is …_ Alice thought. She didn't know how bad this woman was but she had given Harry those scars.

**Hermione was biting her lip, deep in thought.**

**"We know everything important," Harry went on, addressing Hermione. "We know they've stopped Apparition in and out of the Ministry; We know only the most senior Ministry members are allowed to connect their homes to the Floo Network now, because Ron heard those two Unspeakables complaining about it. And we know roughly where Umbridge's office is, because of what you heard the bearded bloke saying to his mate -"**

**"'I'll be up on level one, Dolores wants to see me,'" Hermione recited immediately.**

"They seem prepared" Arther informed everyone, he wasn't that worried.

**"Exactly," said Harry. "And we know you get in using those funny coins, or tokens, or whatever they are, because I saw that witch borrowing one from her friend -"**

**"But we haven't got any!"**

**"If the plan works, we will have," Harry continued calmly.**

**"I don't know, Harry, I don't know ... There are an awful lot of things that could go wrong, so much relies on chance ..."**

**"That'll be true even if we spend another three months preparing," said Harry. "It's time to act."**

_True, true. _Everyone thought … they was a lot of go wrong but what other choice did they have.

**He could tell from Ron's and Hermione's faces that they were scared; he was not particularly confident himself, and yet he was sure the time had come to put their plan into operation.**

**They had spent the previous four weeks taking it in turns to don the Invisibility Cloak and spy on the official entrance to the Ministry, which Ron, thanks to Mr. Weasley, had known since childhood. They had tailed Ministry workers on their way in, eavesdropped on their conversations, and learned by careful observation which of them could be relied upon to appear, alone, at the same time every day. Occasionally there had been a chance to sneak a Daily Prophet out of somebody's briefcase. Slowly they had built up the sketchy maps and notes now stacked in front of Hermione.**

"That's really good" Frank said impressed, Dumbledore nodded and smiled at him.

**"All right," said Ron slowly, "let's say we go for it tomorrow ... I think it should just be me and Harry."**

"Don't go all 'It's the boys mission' on her now" Lily expressed her annoyance by slapping the back of James head, he did that too.

**"Oh, don't start that again!" sighed Hermione. "I thought we'd settled this."**

**"It's one thing hanging around the entrances under the Cloak, but this is different. Hermione," Ron jabbed a finger at a copy of the Daily Prophet dated ten days previously. "You're on the list of Muggle-borns who didn't present themselves for interrogation!"**

**"And you're supposed to be dying of spattergroit at the Burrow! If anyone shouldn't go, it's Harry, he's got a ten-thousand-Galleon price on his head -"**

"Ten-thousand-Galleon's" Sirius whistled. Everyone glared, now was not the time to remind them.

**"Fine, I'll stay here," said Harry. "Let me know if you ever defeat Voldemort, won't you?"**

Half of the room laughed.

**As Ron and Hermione laughed, pain shot through the scar on Harry's forehead. His hand jumped to it. He saw Hermione's eyes narrow, and he tried to pass off the movement by brushing his hair out of his eyes.**

Frank chuckled "I bet that didn't work out"

**"Well, if all three of us go we'll have to Disapparate separately," Ron was saying. "We can't all fit under the Cloak anymore."**

**Harry's scar was becoming more and more painful. He stood up. At once, Kreacher hurried forward.**

**"Master has not finished his soup, would master prefer the savory stew, or else the treacle tart to which Master is so partial?"**

"Unbelievable"

**"Thanks, Kreacher, but I'll be back in a minute - er - bathroom."**

**Aware that Hermione was watching him suspiciously, Harry hurried up the stairs to the hall and then to the first landing, where he dashed into the bathroom and bolted the door again. Grunting with pain, he slumped over the black basin with its taps in the form of open-mouthed serpents and closed his eyes ...**

**He was gliding along a twilit street. The buildings on either side of him had high, timbered gables; they looked like gingerbread houses. He approached one of them, then saw the whiteness of his own long-fingered hand against the door. He knocked. He felt a mounting excitement ...**

"He just knocked? He just knocked the door?" Sirius questioned a little amused that that.

**The door opened: A laughing woman stood there. Her face fell as she looked into Harry's face: humor gone, terror replacing it ...**

"Oh, the poor woman."

**"Gregorovitch?" said a high, cold voice.**

**She shook her head: She was trying to close the door. A white hand held it steady, prevented her shutting him out ...**

**"I want Gregorovitch."**

"Anyone know why he wants him?" Molly asked a little scared, about what might happen to the woman.

**"Er wohnt hier nicht mehr!" she cried, shaking her head. "He no live here! He no live here! I know him not!"**

**Abandoning the attempt to close the door, she began to back away down the dark hall, and Harry followed, gliding toward her, and his long-fingered hand had drawn his wand.**

**"Where is he?"**

**"Das weiszlig; ich nicht! He move! I know not, I know not!"**

A few woman whimpered.

**He raised his hand. She screamed. Two young children came running into the hall. She tried to shield them with her arms. There was a flash of green light -**

Nearly everyone gasped. They just died, because, he didn't get what he wanted …

**"Harry! HARRY!"**

**He opened his eyes; he had sunk to the floor. Hermione was pounding on the door again.**

**"Harry, open up!"**

Aberforth shoke his head "She knows."

**He had shouted out, he knew it. He got up and unbolted the door; Hermione toppled inside at once, regained her balance, and looked around suspiciously. Ron was right behind her, looking unnerved as he pointed his wand into the corners of the chilly bathroom.**

**"What were you doing?" asked Hermione sternly.**

**"What d'you think I was doing?" asked Harry with feeble bravado.**

**"You were yelling your head off!" said Ron.**

"Well he can't exactly cover that up," Aberforth spoke again.

**"Oh yeah ... I must've dozed off or -"**

Despite the situation James, Sirius and Remus sniggered at the very non-believable lie.

**"Harry, please don't insult our intelligence," said Hermione, taking deep breaths. "We know your scar hurt downstairs, and you're white as a sheet."**

**Harry sat down on the edge of the bath.**

**"Fine. I've just seen Voldemort murdering a woman. By now he's probably killed her whole family. And he didn't need to. It was Cedric all over again, they were just there ..."**

A few gulped. The poor boy was only seventeen and he had already seen, a boy named Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore and Merlin knows who else die. But some of them hadn't even seen anyone die before, and they were much older than Harry.

**"Harry, you aren't supposed to let this happen anymore!" Hermione cried, her voice echoing through the bathroom. "Dumbledore wanted you to use Occlumency! HE thought the connection was dangerous - Voldemort can use it, Harry! What good is it to watch him kill and torture, how can it help?"**

Alice slammed her hand on the table. "Doesn't this girl understand? He can't shut him out?"

Everyone nodded, they agreed but Hermione didn't know that.

**"Because it means I know what he's doing," said Harry.**

**"So you're not even going to try to shut him out?"**

**"Hermione, I can't. You know I'm lousy at Occlumency. I never got the hang of it."**

**"You never really tried!" she said hotly. "I don't get it, Harry - do you like having this special connection or relationship or what - whatever - "**

"How dare she." James snarled a little.

**She faltered under the look he gave her as he stood up.**

**"Like it?" he said quietly. "Would you like it?"**

**"I - no - I'm sorry, Harry. I just didn't mean -"**

"Too late" Sirius muttered, she'd done the damage.

**"I hate it, I hate the fact that he can get inside me, that I have to watch him when he's most dangerous. But I'm going to use it."**

"He's right, it can come in useful, he'll know stuff about him, that no one else would" Remus stated.

**"Dumbledore -"**

**"Forget Dumbledore. This is my choice, nobody else's. I want to know why he's after Gregorovitch."**

"So do we?"

**"Who?"**

**"He's a foreign wandmaker," said Harry. "He made Krum's wand and Krum reckons he's brilliant."**

**"But according to you," said Ron, "Voldemort's got Ollivander locked up somewhere. If he's already got a wandmaker, what does he need another one for?"**

Everyone looked a puzzled, they couldn't make this out, they couldn't make sense of it.

**"Maybe he agrees with Krum, maybe he thinks Gregorovitch is better ... or else he thinks Gregorovitch will be able to explain what my wand did when he was chasing me, because Ollivander didn't know."**

**Harry glanced into the cracked, dusty mirror and saw Ron and Hermione exchanging skeptical looks behind his back.**

"I would hex one of them" Frank told everyone, he was starting to lose patients with these two.

**"Harry, you keep talking about what your wand did," said Hermione, "but you made it happen! Why are you so determined not to take responsibility for your own power?"**

**"Because I know it wasn't me! And so does Voldemort, Hermione! We both know what really happened!"**

"Yeah, but I don't think I'd believe it either."

**They glared at each other; Harry knew that he had not convinced Hermione and that she was marshaling counterarguments, against both his theory on his wand and the fact that he was permitting himself to see into Voldemort's mind. To his relief, Ron intervened.**

Molly smiled "Thank you Ron."

**"Drop it," he advised her. "It's up to him. And if we're going to the Ministry tomorrow, don't you reckon we should go over the plan?"**

Moody nodded. They need to get this sorted out.

**Reluctantly, as the other two could tell, Hermione let the matter rest, though Harry was quite sure she would attack again at the first opportunity. In the meantime, they returned to the basement kitchen, where Kreacher served them all stew and treacle tart.**

Sirius raised an eyebrow "Lucky"

**They did not get to bed until late that night, after spending hours going over and over their plan until they could recite it, word perfect, to each other. Harry, who was now sleeping in Sirius's room, lay in bed with his wandlight trained on the old photograph of his father, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew, **

They all sighed sadly …

**and muttered the plan to himself for another ten minutes. As he extinguished his wand, however, he was thinking not of Polyjuice Potion, Puking Pastilles, or the navy blue robes of Magical Maintenance; he thought of Gregorovitch the wandmaker, and how long he could hope to remain hidden while Voldemort sought him so determinedly.**

"Well, Harry in case you haven't noticed, he wants you determinedly too but he still hasn't got you."

**Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.**

**"You look terrible," was Ron's greeting as he entered the room to wake Harry.**

**"Not for long," said Harry, yawning.**

**They found Hermione downstairs in the kitchen. She was being served coffee and hot rolls by Kreacher and wearing the slightly manic expression that Harry associated with exam review.**

A few chuckled, they all had a friend like that; But Hermione seemed much worse.

**"Robes," she said under her breath, acknowledging their presence with a nervous nod and continuing to poke around in her beaded bag, "Polyjuice Potion ... Invisibility Cloak ... Decoy Detonators ... You should each take a couple just in case ... Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Norgat, Extendable Ears ..."**

"They have a lot of things I have never heard of?" James muttered a little excited about what these things were.

**They gulped down their breakfast, then set off upstairs, Kreacher bowing them out and promising to have a steak-and-kidney pie ready for them when they returned.**

Sirius sighed longingly but knew Kreacher would never make him that.

**"Bless him," said Ron fondly, "and when you think I used to fantasize about cutting off his head and sticking it on the wall."**

Everyone laughed

**They made their way onto the front step with immense caution. They could see a couple of puffy-eyed Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square.**

"It's funny, how they are right there but just can't be seen.

**Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then came back for Harry.**

**After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, Harry found himself in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of their plan was scheduled to take place. It was as yet deserted, except for a couple of large bins; the first Ministry workers did not usually appear here until at least eight o'clock.**

**"Right then," said Hermione, checking her watch. "she ought to be here in about five minutes. When I've Stunned her -"**

**"Hermione, we know," said Ron sternly. "And I thought we were supposed to open the door before she got here?"**

**Hermione squealed.**

**"I nearly forgot! Stand back -"**

"Well that's no use" James tutted in a joking manner.

**She pointed her wand at the padlocked and heavily graffitied fire door beside them, which burst open with a crash. The dark corridor behind it led, as they knew from their careful scouting trips, into an empty theater. Hermione pulled the door back toward her, to make it look as thought it was still closed.**

**"And now," she said, turning, back to face the other two in the alleyway, "we put on the Cloak again -"**

**"- and we wait," Ron finished, throwing it over Hermione's head like a blanket over a birdcage and rolling his eyes at Harry.**

A few people sniggered. Arther and Molly smiled at this, it was nice to hear about their son, when he wasn't about to die, and was acting like a normal teenager, rolling his eyes, and laughing and _normal_ stuff.

**Little more than a minute later, there was a tiny pop and a little Ministry witch with flyaway gray hair Apparated feet from them, blinking a little in the sudden brightness: the sun had just come out from behind a cloud. She barely had time to enjoy the unexpected warmth, however, before Hermione's silent Stunning Spell hit her in the chest and she toppled over.**

"Silent?" so she can do non-verbal spells, that was impressive.

**"Nicely done, Hermione," said Ron, emerging behind a bin beside the theater door as Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak. Together they carried the little witch into the dark passageway that led backstage. Hermione plucked a few hairs from the witch's head and added them to a flask of muddy Polyjuice Potion she had taken from the beaded bag. Ron was rummaging through the little witch's handbag.**

Sirius started sniggering, James and Remus shook their heads in with a fond smile, they knew what Sirius was thinking.

**"She's Mafalda Hopkirk," he said, reading a small card that identified their victim as an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office. "You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens."**

"She's at the Ministry now as well." Moody confirmed.

**He passed her several small golden coins, all embossed with the letters M.O.M. which he had taken from the witch's purse.**

**Hermione drank the Polyjuice Potion, which was now a pleasant heliotrope color, and within seconds stood before them, the double of Mafalda Hopkirk. As she removed Mafalda's spectacles and put them on, Harry checked his watch.**

**"We're running late, Mr. Magical Maintenance will be here any second."**

**They hurried to close the door on the real Mafalda; Harry and Ron threw the Invisibility Cloak over themselves but Hermione remained in view, waiting. Seconds later there was another pop, and a small, ferrety looking wizard appeared before them.**

Frank sniggered at the description this time.

**"Oh, hello, Mafalda."**

**"Hello!" said Hermione in a quavery voice, "How are you today?"**

**"Not so good, actually," replied the little wizard, who looked thoroughly downcast.**

**As Hermione and the wizard headed for the main road, Harry and Ron crept along behind them.**

**"I'm sorry to hear you're under the weather," said Hermione, talking firmly over the little wizard and he tried to expound upon his problems; it was essential to stop him from reaching the street. "Here, have a sweet."**

Everyone looked at the book curiously, why had she not stunned him, and why is she offering him a sweet?

**"Eh? Oh, no thanks -"**

**"I insist!" said Hermione aggressively, shaking the bag of pastilles in his face. Looking rather alarmed, the little wizard took one.**

"Idiot … who knows what that could have be" Moody mumbled shaking his head … was everyone idiot's now a days.

**The effect was instantaneous. The moment the pastille touched his tongue, the little wizard started vomiting so hard that he did not even notice as Hermione yanked a handful of hairs from the top of his head.**

**"Oh dear!" she said, as he splattered the alley with sick. "Perhaps you'd better take the day off!"**

**"No - no!" He choked and retched, trying to continue on his way despite being unable to walk straight. "I must - today - must go -"**

"Something tells me that's not good …" Remus informed them, everyone looked a little alarmed.

**"But that's just silly!" said Hermione, alarmed. "You can't go to work in this state - I think you ought to go to St. Mungo's and get them to sort you out."**

**The wizard had collapsed, heaving, onto all fours, still trying to crawl toward the main street.**

"That's really not a good sign" Remus a little alarmed now said.

**"You simply can't go to work like this!" cried Hermione.**

**At last he seemed to accept the truth of her words. Using a reposed Hermione to claw his way back into a standing position, he turned on the spot and vanished, leaving nothing behind but the bag Ron had snatched from his hand as he went and some flying chunks of vomit.**

**"Urgh," said Hermione, holding up the skirt of her robe to avoid the puddles of sick. "It would have made much less mess to Stun him too."**

"Why didn't she?"

**"Yeah," said Ron, emerging from under the cloak holding the wizard's bag, "but I still think a whole pile of unconscious bodies would have drawn more attention. Keen on his job, though, isn't he? Chuck us the hair and the potion, then."**

"But he can come back? If their unconscious they won't be able to. But he can" Lily cried to everyone's alarm

**Within two minutes, Ron stood before them, as small and ferrety as the sick wizard, and wearing the navy blue robes that had been folded in his bag.**

**"Weird he wasn't wearing them today, wasn't it, seeing how much he wanted to go? Anyway, I'm Reg Cattermole, according to the label in the back."**

"He's not at the Ministry, just now." Arther nodded to everyone.

**"Now wait here," Hermione told Harry, who was still under the Invisibility Cloak, "and we'll be back with some hairs for you."**

**He had to wait ten minutes, but it seemed much longer to Harry, skulking alone in the sick-splattered alleyway beside the door concealing the Stunned Mafalda. Finally Ron and Hermione reappeared.**

**"We don't know who he is," Hermione said, passing Harry several curly black hairs, "but he's gone home with a dreadful nosebleed! Here, he's pretty tall, you'll need bigger robes ..."**

"They'll need to know his name, Harry will need to know him name." Lily was not frantic. Everything could go wrong.

**She pulled out a set of the old robes Kreacher had laundered for them, and Harry retired to take the potion and change.**

**Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall and, from what he could tell from his well-muscled arms, powerfully built. He also had a beard. Stowing the Invisibility Cloak and his glasses inside his new robes, he rejoined the other two.**

**"Blimey, that's scary," said Ron, looking up at Harry, who now towered over him.**

A lot of people chuckled, at what Ron had said.

**"Take one of Mafalda's tokens," Hermione told Harry, "and let's go, it's nearly nine."**

**They stepped out of the alleyway together. Fifty yards along the crowded pavement there were spiked black railings flanking two flights of stairs, one labeled GENTLEMEN, the other LADIES.**

**"See you in a moment, then," said Hermione nervously, and she tottered off down the steps to LADIES. Harry and Ron joined a number of oddly dressed men descending into what appeared to be an ordinary underground public toilet, tiled in grimy black and white.**

**"Morning, Reg!" called another wizard in navy blue robes as he let himself into a cubicle by inserting his golden token into a slot in the door. "Blooming pain in the bum, this, eh? Forcing us all to get to work this way! Who are they expecting to turn up, Harry Potter?"**

Nearly everyone laughed "Yeah, that exactly who they are expecting to turn up. And that's who did."

**The wizard roared with laughter at his own wit. Ron gave a forced chuckle.**

**"Yeah," he said, "stupid, isn't it?"**

"No" echoed around room

**And he and Harry let themselves into adjoining cubicles.**

**To Harry's left and right came the sound of flushing. He crouched down and peered through the gap at the bottom of the cubicle, just in time to see a pair of booted feet climbing into the toilet next door. He looked left and saw Ron blinking at him.**

**"We have to flush ourselves in?" he whispered.**

"Oh, that is just disgusting" Lily shuddered.

**"Looks like it," Harry whispered back; his voice came out deep and gravelly.**

**They both stood up. Feeling exceptionally foolish, Harry clambered into the toilet.**

Sirius could help but snigger again.

**He knew at once that he had done the right thing; thought he appeared to be standing in water, his shoes, feet, and robes remained quite dry. He reached up, pulled the chain, and next moment had zoomed down a short chute, emerging out of a fireplace into the Ministry of Magic.**

James eyes were wide "That is so cool"

**He got up clumsily; there was a lot more of his body than he was accustomed to. The great Atrium seemed darker than Harry remembered it. Previously a golden fountain had filled the center of the hall, casting shimmering spots of light over the polished wooden floor and walls. Now a gigantic statue of black stone dominated the scene. It was rather frightening, this vast sculpture of a witch and a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones, looking down at the Ministry workers toppling out of fireplaces below them. Engraved in foot-high letters at the base of the statue were the words MAGIC IS MIGHT.**

**Harry received a heavy blow on the back of the legs. Another wizard had just flown out of the fireplace behind him.**

**"Out of the way, can't y-oh, sorry, Runcorn."**

**Clearly frightened, the balding wizard hurried away. Apparently the man who Harry was impersonating, Runcorn, was intimidating.**

"At least, that's good." Moody approved.

**"Psst!" said a voice, and he looked around to see a whispy little witch and the ferrety wizard from Magical Maintenance gesturing to him from over beside the statue. Harry hastened to join them.**

**"You got in all right, then?" Hermione whispered to Harry.**

**"No, he's still stuck in the hog," said Ron.**

All the younger people laughed at Ron's words, while Dumbledore chuckled.

**"Oh, very funny ... It's horrible, isn't it?" she said to Harry, who was staring up at the statue. "Have you seen what they're sitting on?"**

**Harry looked more closely and realized that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women, and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards.**

Lily looked appalled, so did many others. "That's totally disgusting, and unfair and well it's just ah."

**"Muggles," whispered Hermione, "In their rightful place. Come on, let's get going."**

**They joined the stream of witches and wizards moving toward the golden gates at the end of the hall, looking around as surreptitiously as possible, but there was no sign of the distinctive figure of Dolores Umbridge. They passed through the gates and into a smaller hall, where queues were forming in front of twenty golden grilles housing as many lifts. They had barely joined the nearest one when a voice said, "Cattermole!"**

**They looked around: Harry's stomach turned over. One of the Death Eaters who had witnessed Dumbledore's death was striding toward them. The Ministry workers beside them fell silent, their eyes downcast; Harry could feel fear rippling through them.**

"That is not good, what does the Death Eater, want with the man Ron's posing as." Remus was curious.

**The man's scowling, slightly brutish face was somehow at odds with his magnificent, sweeping robes, which were embroidered with much gold thread. Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, "Morning, Yaxley!" Yaxley ignored them.**

A few growled under their breath "Yaxley."

**"I requested somebody from Magical Maintenance to sort out my office, Cattermole. It's still raining in there."**

**Ron looked around as though hoping somebody else would intervene, but nobody spoke.**

**"Raining ... in your office? That's - that's not good, is it?"**

"Ron, you're digging you're self a whole" Arther chatted to the book a little nervous. This obviously wasn't going to end well.

**Ron gave a nervous laugh. Yaxley's eyes widened.**

**"You think it's funny, Cattermole, do you?"**

**A pair of witches broke away from the queue for the lift and bustled off.**

**"No," said Ron, "no, of course -"**

Some were shaking their heads.

**"You realize that I am on my way downstairs to interrogate your wife, Cattermole? In fact, I'm quite surprised you're not down there holding her hand while she waits. Already given her up as a bad job, have you? Probably wise. Be sure and marry a pureblood next time."**

Everyone's eyes were wide. _This isn't good, this isn't good at all._

**Hermione had let out a little squeak of horror. Yaxley looked at her. She cough feebly and turned away.**

**"I - I -" stammered Ron.**

**"But if my wife were accused of being a Mudblood," said Yaxley, "- not that any woman I married would ever be mistaken for such filth - and the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I would make it my priority to do this job, Cattermole. Do you understand me?"**

"Ron, won't know how? Will he?" A nervous Molly croaked, most said no.

**"Yes," whispered Ron.**

**"Then attend to it, Cattermole, and if my office is not completely dry within an hour, your wife's Blood Status will be in even greater doubt than it is now."**

"That's just wrong, everyone now a days, is judged on blood-status, but not this bad." Lily feared.

**The golden grille before them clattered open. With a nod and unpleasant smile to Harry, who was evidently expected to appreciate this treatment of Cattermole, Yaxley swept away toward another lift. Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered theirs, but nobody followed them: It was as if they were infectious. The grilles shut with a clang and the lift began to move upward.**

**"What am I going to do?" Ron asked the other two at once; he looked stricken. "If I don't turn up, my wife ... I mean, Cattermole's wife -"**

"Yeah, I have to agree Ron, you're in a little bit of a pickle" Alice explained slowly.

**"We'll come with you, we should stick together -" began Harry, but Ron shook his head feverishly.**

**"That's mental, we haven't got much time. You two find Umbridge, I'll go and sort out Yaxley's office - but how do I stop a raining?"**

**"Try Finite Incantatem," said Hermione at once, "that should stop the rain if it's a hex or curse; if it doesn't something's gone wrong with an Atmospheric Charm, which will be more difficult to fix, so as an interim measure try Impervius to protect his belongings -"**

"I think she should go instead." James advised.

**"Say it again, slowly -" said Ron, searching his pockets desperately for a quill, but at that moment the lift juddered to a halt. A disembodied female voice said, "Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Bureau," and the grilles slid open again, admitting a couple of wizards and several pale violet paper airplanes that fluttered around the lamp in the ceiling of the lift.**

**"Morning, Albert," said a bushily whiskered man, smiling at Harry. He glanced over at Ron and Hermione as the lift creaked upward once more; Hermione was now whispering frantic instructions to Ron. The wizard leaned toward Harry, leering, and muttering "Dirk Cresswell, eh? From Goblin Liaison? Nice one, Albert. I'm pretty confident I'll get his job now!"**

"Oh, so the person Harry's playing is in with the Muggle-born thing."

**He winked. Harry smiled back, hoping that this would suffice. The lift stopped; the grilles opened once more.**

**"Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services," said the disembodied witch's voice.**

**Harry saw Hermione give Ron a little push and he hurried out of the lift, followed by the other wizards, leaving Harry and Hermione alone. The moment the golden door had closed Hermione said, very fast, "Actually, Harry, I think I'd better go after him, I don't think he knows what he's doing and if he gets caught the whole thing -"**

"Yeah, I agree." Most muttered.

**"Level one, Minister of Magic and Support Staff."**

**The golden grilles slid apart again and Hermione gasped. Four people stood before them, two of them deep in conversation: a long-haired wizard wearing magnificent robes of black and gold, and a squat, toadlike witch wearing a velvet bow in her short hair and clutching a clipboard to her chest.**

"That's her" Lily shouted pointing at the book, everyone watched in amusment. They could tell by the 'toadlike' description that was giving earlier by Dung.


	20. The Muggle-born Registration Commission

_All the bold writing belongs to JK Rowling. Character's are all her's. None of it mine, expect the normal writing._

* * *

Sirius's stomach rumbled, "Can we have some food just now?"

Lily glared at him "No, I want to know what happens to my son." She snapped.

He put his hands up in surrender, and McGonagall looked impressed at the control Lily had over the friends. Lily turned her expression in to a kind, polite smile. "Please continue, sir." He obeyed.

**Ah, Mafalda!" said Umbridge, looking at Hermione. "Travers sent you, did he?"**

**"Y-yes," squeaked Hermione.**

**"God, you'll do perfectly well." Umbridge spoke to the wizard in black and gold. "That's that problem solved. Minister, if Mafalda can be spared for record-keeping we shall be able to start straightaway." She consulted her clipboard. "Ten people today and one of them the wife of a Ministry employee! Tut, tut... even here, in the heart of the Ministry!" She stepped into the lift besides Hermione, as did the two wizards who had been listening to Umbridge's conversation with the Minister. **

"No comment" James said harshly.

**"We'll go straight down, Mafalda, you'll find everything you need in the courtroom. Good morning, Albert, aren't you getting out?"**

**"Yes, of course," said Harry in Runcorn's deep voice.**

**Harry stepped out of the life. The golden grilles clanged shut behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, Harry saw Hermione's anxious face sinking back out of sight, a tall wizard on either side of her, Umbridge's velvet hair-bow level with her shoulder.**

"This is bad, none of them are together anymore."

**"What brings you here, Runcorn?" asked the new Minister of Magic. His long black hair and beard were streaked with silver and a great overhanging forehead shadowed his glinting eyes, putting Harry in the mind of a crab looking out from beneath a rock.**

**"Needed a quick word with," Harry hesitated for a fraction of a second, "Arthur Weasley. Someone said he was up on level one."**

Molly winced slightly, she didn't want Arther to get in to trouble.

**"Ah," said Plum Thicknesse. "Has he been caught having contact with an Undesirable?"**

_Undesirable? _Everyone thought, looking at each other curiously.

**"No," said Harry, his throat dry. "No, nothing like that."**

**"Ah, well. It's only a matter of time," said Thicknesse. "If you ask me, the blood traitors are as bad as the Mudbloods. Good day, Runcorn."**

Arther coughed "Well, I'm glad I'm a blood traitor."

**"Good day, Minister."**

**Harry watched Thicknesse march away along the thickly carpeted corridor. The moment the Minister had passed out of sight, Harry tugged the Invisibility Cloak out from under his heavy black cloak, threw it over himself, and set off along the corridor in the opposite direction. Runcorn was so tall that Harry was forced to stoop to make sure his big feet were hidden.**

**Panic pulsed in the pit of his stomach. As he passed gleaming wooden door after gleaming wooden door, each bearing a small plaque with the owner's name and occupation upon it, the might of the Ministry, its complexity, its impenetrability, seemed to force itself upon him so that the plan he had been carefully concocting with Ron and Hermione over the past four weeks seemed laughably childish. They had concentrated all their efforts on getting inside without being detected: They had not given a moment's thought to what they would do if they were forced to separate. **

"Well that's not good, you are supposed to go over _every_ plan" Moody drummed in to them.

**Now Hermione was stuck in court proceedings, which would undoubtedly last hours; Ron was struggling to do magic that Harry was sure was beyond him, a woman's liberty possibly depending on the outcome, and he, Harry, was wandering around on the top floor when he knew perfectly well that his quarry had just gone down in the lift.**

"This is really, not good" Molly moaned

**He stopped walking, leaned against a wall, and tried to decide what to do. The silence pressed upon him: There was no bustling or talk or swift footsteps here the purple-carpeted corridors were as hushed as though the Muffliato charm had been cast over the place.**

**Her office must be up here, Harry thought.**

**It seemed most unlikely that Umbridge would keep her jewelry in her office, but on the other hand it seemed foolish not to search it to make sure. **

Moody nodded "That's right." Everyone rolled their eyes, they were so used to Moody and his training …

**He therefore set off along the corridor again, passing nobody but a frowning wizard who was murmuring instructions to a quill that floated in front of him, scribbling on a trail of parchment.**

**Now paying attention to the names on the doors, Harry turned a corner. Halfway along the next corridor he emerged into a wide, open space where a dozen witches and wizards sat in rows at small desks not unlike school desks, though much more highly polished and free from graffiti. Harry paused to watch them, for the effect was quite mesmerizing. They were all waving and twiddling their wands in unison, and squares of colored paper were flying in every direction like little pink kites. After a few seconds, Harry realized that there was a rhythm to the proceedings, that the papers all formed the same pattern and after a few more seconds he realized what he was watching was the creation of pamphlets - that the paper squares were pages, which, when assembled, folded and magicked into place, fell into neat stacks beside each witch or wizard.**

"What in Merlin, would they need to create pamphlets for?" Sirius asked completely puzzled but also a little curious. You hardly ever got pamphlets at all in the Wizard world.

**Harry crept closer, although the workers were so intent on what they were doing that he doubted they would notice a carpet-muffled footstep, and he slid a completed pamphlet from the pile beside a young witch. He examined it beneath the Invisibility Cloak. Its pink cover was emblazoned with a golden title:**

**Mudbloods and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society**

Everyone glanced at each other in disbelief, then Sirius snorted, "That is so pathetic." Everyone agreed but they were too shocked to say anything, seriously what was the world coming to? Literally

**Beneath the title was a picture of a red rose with a simpering face in the middle of its petals, being strangled by a green weed with fangs and a scowl. There was no author's name upon the pamphlet, but again, the scars on the back of his right hand seemed to tingle as he examined it. Then the young witch beside him confirmed his suspicion as she said, still waving and twirling her wand, "Will the old hag be interrogating Mudbloods all day, does anyone know?"**

"How can they talk about it so calmly?" James nearly yelled, he was horrified, these were people like Lily, if Lily was alive at that time, he didn't want to know what might happen to her.

**"Careful," said the wizard beside her, glancing around nervously; one of his pages slipped and fell to the floor.**

**"What, has she got magic ears as well as an eye, now?"**

**The witch glanced toward the shining mahogany door facing the space full of pamphlet-makers; Harry looked too, and the rage reared in him like a snake. Where there might have been a peephole on a Muggle front door, a large, round eye with a bright blue iris had been set into the wood - an eye that was shockingly familiar to anybody who had known Alastor Moody.**

Everyone looked at Moody, and he looked rather sick. "Even though, I don't really care what they done with my body, I would rather my eye wasn't there." With a tone that just said disgust. Everyone agreed, that was just not right.

**For a split second Harry forgot where he was and what he was doing there: He even forgot that he was invisible. He strode straight over to the door to examine the eye. It was not moving. It gazed blindly upward, frozen. The plaque beneath it read:**

**Dolores Umbridge**

**Senior Undersecretary to the Minister**

**Below that a slightly shinier new plaque read:**

**Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission**

"I should have known" Alice tutted angrily.

**Harry looked back at the dozen pamphlet-makers: Though they were intent upon their work, he could hardly suppose that they would not notice if the door of an empty office opened in front of them. He therefore withdrew from an inner pocket an odd object with little waving legs and a rubber-bulbed horn for a body. Crouching down beneath the Cloak, he placed the Decoy Detonator on the ground.**

"That's the thing Hermione was talking about that morning." Lily praised Hermione in her head for whatever this thing was.

**It scuttled away at once through the legs of the witches and wizards in front of him. A few moments later, during which Harry waited with his hand upon the doorknob, there came a loud bang and a great deal of acrid smoke billowed from a corner. The young witch in the front row shrieked: Pink pages flew everywhere as she and her fellows jumped up, looking around for the source of the commotion. Harry turned the doorknob, stepped into Umbridge's office, and closed the door behind him.**

**He felt he had stepped back in time. The room was exactly like Umbridge's office at Hogwarts: Lace draperies, doilies and dried flowers covered every surface. The walls bore the same ornamental plates, each featuring a highly colored, beribboned kitten, gamboling and frisking with sickening cuteness. The desk was covered with a flouncy, flowered cloth. Behind Mad-eye's eye, a telescopic attachment enabled Umbridge to spy on the workers on the other side of the door. Harry took a look through it and saw that they were all still gathered around the Decoy Detonator. He wrenched the telescope out of the door, leaving a hole behind, pulled the magical eyeball out of it, and placed it in his pocket.**

Moody growled "What are you doing boy, you could get yourself caught."

** The he turned to face the room again, raised his wand, and murmured, "Accio Locker."**

**Nothing happened, but he had not expected it to; no doubt Umbridge knew all about protective charms and spells. He therefore hurried behind her desk and began pulling open all the drawers. He saw quills and notebooks and Spellotape; enchanted paper clips that coiled snakelike from their drawer and had be beaten back; a fussy little lace box full of spare hair bows and clips; but no sign of a locket.**

"This better not be a waste of trip" Frank cried in an annoyed voice.

**There was a filing cabinet behind the desk: Harry set to searching it. Like Filch's filing cabinet at Hogwarts, it was full of folders, each labeled with a name. It was not until Harry reached the bottommost drawer that he saw something to distract him from the search: Mr. Weasley's file.**

Everyone looked at Arther curious, why would he have a file? He was pureblood. He shrugged at them but he too was even more curious about it than them

**He pulled it out and opened it.**

**Arthur Weasley**

**Blood Status: **

**Pureblood, but with unacceptable pro-Muggle leanings. Known member of the Order of the Phoenix. **

"So the Order is known now" McGonagall pointed out

**Family: **

**Wife (pureblood), seven children, two youngest at Hogwarts. NB: Youngest son currently at home, seriously ill, Ministry inspectors have confirmed. **

A few snorted, Ministry didn't inspect to well.

**Security Status: **

**TRACKED. All movements are being monitored. Strong likelihood Undesirable No. 1 will contact (has stayed with Weasley family previously) **

A few people looked confused, but some were outraged, they had worked it out.

**"Undesirable Number One," Harry muttered under his breath as he replaced Mr. Weasley's folder and shut the drawer. He had an idea he knew who that was, and sure enough, as he straightened up and glanced around the office for fresh hiding places he saw a poster of himself on the wall, with the words UNDESIRABLE NO. 1 emblazoned across his chest. A little pink note was stuck to it with a picture of a kitten in the corner.**

**Harry moved across to read it and saw that Umbridge had written, "To be punished."**

Everyone looked outraged now, this was becoming pathetic now. 'UNDESIRABLE NO. 1' that was the worst title so far.

**Angrier than ever, he proceeded to grope in the bottoms of the vases and baskets of dried flowers, but was not at all surprised that the locket was not there. He gave the office one last sweeping look, and his heart skipped a beat. Dumbledore was staring at him from a small rectangular mirror, propped up on a bookcase beside the desk.**

Everyone tensed, they had a feeling they knew who it was.

**Harry crossed the room at a run and snatched it up, but realized that the moment he touched it that it was not a mirror at all. Dumbledore was smiling wistfully out of the front cover of a glossy book. Harry had not immediately noticed the curly green writing across his hat - The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore - nor the slightly smaller writing across his chest: "by Rita Skeeter, bestselling author of Armando Dippet: Master or Moron?"**

_Please, please, don't read it Harry. _Everyone thought. They didn't know what the truth was but it was saddening and awkward to see the two brothers act the way they do.

**Harry opened the book at random and saw a full-page photograph of two teenage boys, both laughing immoderately with their arms around each other's shoulders. **

Aberforth's hands curled up in to a fist now, and Dumbledore bowed his head so no one could see his face and they could hardly make out what he was saying when he read, the brother's knew who this was, and they weren't happy at all. Well Aberforth was slightly happy that everyone would find out his brother befriended the person everyone thought he hated. At least they would know the truth.

**Dumbledore, now with elbow-length hair, had grown a tiny wispy beard that recalled the one on Krum's chin that had so annoyed Ron. The boy who roared in silent amusement beside Dumbledore had a gleeful, wild look about him. His golden hair fell in curls to his shoulders. Harry wondered whether it was a young Doge, but before he could check the caption, the door of the office opened.**

Dumbledore let out a breath, he just knew it was coming up but he didn't want it so soon, he looked at Aberforth and saw anger in his expression, his every feature. He must have felt his brother's gaze because he looked up and stared him right in the eye as if to say;_ you deserve this._

**If Thicknesse had not been looking over his shoulder as he entered, Harry would not have had time to pull the Invisibility Cloak over himself. **

"Why did he take it off?" Moody thudded the table with his fist, the boy needed to be careful.

**As it was, he thought Thicknesse might have caught a glimpse of movement, because for a moment or two he remained quite still, staring curiously at the place where Harry had just vanished. Perhaps deciding that that all he had seen was Dumbledore scratching his nose on the front of the book, for Harry had hastily replaced it upon the shelf. Thicknesse finally walked to the desk and pointed his wand at the quill standing ready in the ink pot. It sprang out and began scribbling a note to Umbridge. Very slowly, hardly daring to breathe, Harry backed out of the office into the open area beyond.**

"Good, it's not there, not get Hermione and Ron and leave"

**The pamphlet-makers were still clustered around the remains of the Decoy Detonator, which continued to hoot feebly as it smoked. Harry hurried off up the corridor as the young witch said, "I bet it sneaked up here from Experimental Charms, they're so careless, remember that poisonous duck?"**

A few people chuckled, _a poisonous duck._

**Speeding back toward the lifts, Harry reviewed his options. It had never been likely that the locket was here at the Ministry, and there was no hope of bewitching its whereabouts out of Umbridge while she was sitting in a crowded court. Their priority now had to be to leave the Ministry before they were exposed, and try again another day. The first thing to do was to find Ron, and then they could work out a way of extracting Hermione from the courtroom.**

**The lift was empty when it arrived. Harry jumped in and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak as it started its descent. To his enormous relief, when it rattled to a halt at level two, a soaking-wet and wild-eyed Ron got in.**

"How luckly is that" Remus chuckled knowing Harry didn't have much luck.

**"M-morning," he stammered to Harry as the lift set off again.**

**"Ron, it's me, Harry!"**

**"Harry! Blimey, I forgot what you looked like - why isn't Hermione with you?"**

"Careless" they all heard Moody mutter but ignored him.

**"She had to go down to the courtrooms with Umbridge, she couldn't refuse, and -"**

**But before Harry could finish the lift had stopped again. The doors opened and Mr. Weasley walked inside, talking to an elderly witch whose blonde hair was teased so high it resembled an anthill.**

Everyone looked at Arther again, what was about to happen.

**"... I quite understand what you're saying, Wakanda, but I'm afraid I cannot be party to -"**

**Mr. Weasley broke off; he had noticed Harry. It was very strange to have Mr. Weasley glare at him with that much dislike. **

"Oh no" a few muttered. Apparently Arther didn't get along with the man who Harry was posing as.

**The lift doors closed and the four of them trundled downward once more.**

**"Oh hello, Reg," said Mr. Weasley, looking around at the sound of steady dripping from Ron's robes. "Isn't your wife in for questioning today? Er - what's happened to you? Why are you so wet?"**

**"Yaxley's office is raining," said Ron. He addressed Mr. Weasley's shoulder, and Harry felt sure he was scared that his father might recognize him if they looked directly into each other's eyes. **

Arther chuckled "I wouldn't have"

**"I couldn't stop it, so they've sent me to get Bernie - Pillsworth, I think they said -"**

**"Yes, a lot of offices have been raining lately," said Mr. Weasley. "Did you try Meterolojinx Recanto? It worked for Bletchley."**

"Offices raining?" Lily shoke her head "Most likely because they don't like the people in them" she added harshly.

**"Meteolojinx Recanto?" whispered Ron. "No, I didn't. Thanks, D - I mean, thanks, Arthur."**

"Yes, son, I think it would have been a bit awkward if you called me dad." He chuckled a little more this time.

**The lift doors opened; the old witch with the anthill hair left, and Ron darted past her out of sight. Harry made to follow him, but found his path blocked as Percy Weasley strode into the lift, his nose buried in some papers he was reading.**

Everyone looked a little more interested.

**Not until the doors had clanged shut again did Percy realize he was in a lit with his father. He glanced up, saw Mr. Weasley, turned radish red, and left the lift the moment the doors opened again. **

"Something is defiantly wrong." Frank point out, everyone looked at him. They had all worked that out themselves.

**For the second time, Harry tried to get out, but this time found his way blocked by Mr. Weasley's arm.**

**"One moment, Runcorn."**

Arther looked a little more interested again "What am I doing?" he said slowly but clear.

**The lift doors closed and as they clanked down another floor, Mr. Weasley said, "I hear you had information about Dirk Cresswell."**

**Harry had the impression that Mr. Weasley's anger was no less because of the brush with Percy. **

Arther nodded knowing that was most likely true, Molly sighed beside her husband, she didn't know what to think about her child's behavior. Of course she wished he would come home. But what if he had a good reason? But also what if he didn't?

**He decided his best chance was to act stupid.**

**"Sorry?" he said.**

**"Don't pretend, Runcorn," said Mr. Weasley fiercely. "You tracked down the wizard who faked his family tree, didn't you?"**

Molly turned to her husband "Arther, you need to be careful" she snapped, he nodded sheepishly, but he couldn't deny she was right.

**"I - so what if I did?" said Harry.**

**"So Dirk Cresswell is ten times the wizard you are," said Mr. Weasley quietly, as the lift sank ever lower. "And if he survives Azkaban, you'll have to answer to him, not to mention his wife, his sons, and his friends -"**

"I think now, would be a good time to stop and let him past Arther" James chuckled, he was just thankful this wasn't really Runcorn.

**"Arthur," Harry interrupted, "you know you're being tracked, don't you?"**

A few laughed, at how Harry just came out with that.

**"Is that a threat, Runcorn?" said Mr. Weasley loudly.**

**"No," said Harry, "it's a fact! They're watching your every move -"**

"I really do hope I take that seriously.

**The lift doors opened. They had reached the Atrium. Mr. Weasley gave Harry a scathing look and swept from the lift. Harry stood there, shaken. He wished he was impersonating somebody other than Runcorn... The lift doors clanged shut.**

**Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and put it back on. He would try to extricate Hermione on his own while Ron was dealing with the raining office. When the doors opened, he stepped out into a torch-lit stone passageway quite different from the wood-paneled and carpeted corridors above. As the left rattled away again, Harry shivered slightly, looking toward the distant black door that marked the entrance to the Department of Mysteries.**

A lot of people sighed, they knew that's were Sirius died, by other chapters.

**He set off, his destination not the black door, but the doorway he remembered on the left hand side, which opened onto the flight of stairs down to the court chambers. His mind grappled with possibilities as he crept down them: He still had a couple of Decoy Detonators, but perhaps it would be better to simply knock on the courtroom door, enter as Runcorn, and ask for a quick word with Mafalda? Of course, he did not know whether Runcorn was sufficiently important to get away with this, and even if he managed it, Hermione's non-reappearance might trigger a search before they were clear of the Ministry...**

Everyone looked a little suspicious about if that would work but they shock their heads, they would find out.

**Lost in thought, he did not immediately register the unnatural chill that was creeping over him, as if he were descending into fog. It was becoming colder and colder with every step he took; a cold that reached right down his throat and tore at his lungs. And then he felt that stealing sense of despair, or hopelessness, filling him, expanding inside him...**

A few people went white. No, they wouldn't take those things in there. Would they?

**Dementors, he thought.**

Some people who had felt them shivered.

**And as he reached the foot of the stairs and turned to his right he saw a dreadful scene. The dark passage outside the courtrooms was packed with tall, black-hooded figures, their faces completely hidden, their ragged breathing the only sound in the place. The petrified Muggle-borns brought in for questioning sat huddled and shivering on hard wooden benches. **

Lily started screeching "That is totally unacceptable. It is also pathetic, and sick and a whole other things."

**Most of them were hiding their faces in their hands, perhaps in an instinctive attempt to shield themselves from the dementors' greedy mouths. Some were accompanied by families, others sat alone. The dementors were gliding up and down in front of them, and the cold, and the hopelessness, and the despair of the place laid themselves upon Harry like a curse...**

"Come on Harry, you can do it." Lily whispered in to her own hands and only James and Sirius heard her and nodded with what she said, unaware.

**Fight it, he told himself, but he knew that he could not conjure a Patronus here without revealing himself instantly. So he moved forward as silently as he could, and with every step he took numbness seemed to steal over his brain, but he forced himself to think of Hermione and of Ron, who needed him.**

A few smiled about what Harry thought about.

**Moving through the towering black figures was terrifying: The eyeless faces hidden beneath their hoods turned as he passed, and he felt sure that they sensed him, sensed, perhaps, a human presence that still had some hope, some resilience...**

Dumbledore looked at the curious faces "They can" and then went straight back to the book.

**And then, abruptly and shockingly amid the frozen silence, one of the dungeon doors on the left of the corridor was flung open and screams echoed out of it.**

"No" Alice croaked out. She didn't want to hear about this.

**"No, no, I'm half-blood, I'm half-blood, I tell you! My father was a wizard, he was, look him up, Arkie Alderton, he's a well known broomstick designer, look him up, I tell you - get your hands off me, get your hands off -"**

**"This is your final warning," said Umbridge's soft voice, magically magnified so that it sounded clearly over the man's desperate screams. "If you struggle, you will be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss."**

No one comments, they were all thinking the same things. _I am so glad the war in not like this just now._

**The man's screams subsided, but dry sobs echoed through the corridor.**

**"Take him away," said Umbridge.**

**Two dementors appeared in the doorway of the courtroom, their rotting, scabbed hands clutching the upper arms of a wizard who appeared to be fainting. They glided away down the corridor with him, and the darkness they trailed behind them swallowed him from sight.=**

**"Next - Mary Cattermole," called Umbridge.**

"That man Ron's posing as, wife" Lily sighed sadly and tilting her head slightly.

**A small woman stood up; she was trembling from head to foot. Her dark hair was smoothed back into a bun and she wore long plain robes. Her face was completely bloodless. As she passed the dementors, Harry saw her shudder.**

"No wonder, I'd rather die than end up with them" Sirius croaked out in a rather frightened voice.

**He did it instinctively, without any sort of plan, because he hated the sight of her walking alone into the dungeon: As the door began to swing closed, he slipped into the courtroom behind her.**

**It was not the same room in which he had once been interrogated for improper use of magic. This one was much smaller, though the ceiling was quite as high it gave the claustrophobic sense of being stuck at the bottom of a deep well.**

Lily was quiet at first but "He was in a courtroom for the improper use of magic?" everyone else looked lost.

**There were more dementors in here, casting their freezing aura over the place; they stood like faceless sentinels in the corners farthest from the high, raised platform. Here, behind a balustrade, sat Umbridge, with Yaxley on one side of her, and Hermione, quite as white-faced as Mrs. Cattermole, on the other. At the foot of the platform, a bight-silver, long-haired cat prowled up and down, up and down, and Harry realized that it was there to protect the prosecutors from the despair that emanated from the dementors: That was for the accused to feel, not the accusers.**

Sirius let out a low and dangerous growl "She should feel them"

**"Sit down," said Umbridge in her soft, silky voice.**

**Mrs. Cattermole stumbled to the single seat in the middle of the floor beneath the raised platform. The moment she had sat down, chains clinked out of the arms of the chair and bound her there.**

"If she's not got a wand, then how is she supposed to hurt anyone anyway? There was no need to do that?" Frank shouted furious, he was more than positive that this woman's wand would have been taken off her before she went in.

**"You are Mary Elizabeth Cattermole?" asked Umbridge.**

**Mrs. Cattermole gave a single, shaky nod.**

**"Married to Reginald Cattermole of the Magical Maintenance Department?"**

**Mrs. Cattermole burst into tears.**

**"I don't know where he is, he was supposed to meet me here!"**

A few people moaned, and Molly had a tear running down her face.

**Umbridge ignored her.**

**"Mother to Maisie, Ellie and Alfred Cattermole?"**

**Mrs. Cattermole sobbed harder than ever.**

**"They're frightened, they think that I might not come home -"**

"The poor children" a few woman sniffed sympathetically.

**"Spare us," spat Yaxley. "The brats of Mudbloods do not stir our sympathies."**

Now a few people hissed and Molly sobbed harder. The world was a wreck in this book, and it was getting worse.

**Mrs. Cattermole's sobs masked Harry's footsteps as he made his way carefully toward the steps that led up to the raised platform. The moment he had passed the place where the Patronus cat patrolled, he felt the change in temperature: It was warm and comfortable here. The Patronus, he was sure, was Umbridge's, and it glowed brightly because she was so happy here, in her element, upholding the twisted laws she had helped to write. **

"I can see why he hates her." McGonagall cleared with everyone, they could too.

**Slowly and very carefully he edged his way along the platform behind Umbridge, Yaxley, and Hermione, taking a seat behind the latter. He was worried about making Hermione jump. He thought of casting the Muffliato charm upon Umbridge and Yaxley, but even murmuring the word might cause Hermione alarm. Then Umbridge raised her voice to address Mrs. Cattermole, and Harry seized his chance.**

**"I'm behind you," he whispered into Hermione's ear.**

Lily couldn't help but let her lip twitch a bit, it would most likely remind Hermione of horror movie's if she was muggle-born.

**As he had expected, she jumped so violently she nearly overturned the bottle of ink with which she was supposed to be recording the interview, but both Umbridge and Yaxley were concentrating upon Mrs. Cattermole, and this went unnoticed.**

"You're luckly" Moody grumbled to himself.

**"A wand was taken from you upon your arrival at the Ministry today, Mrs. Cattermole," Umbridge was saying. "Eight-and-three-quarter inches, cherry, unicorn-hair core. Do you recognize the description?"**

**Mrs. Cattermole nodded, mopping her eyes on her sleeve.**

**"Could you please tell us from which witch or wizard you took that wand?"**

"Took? What does she mean took?" James asked outraged,

Exactly what she said, Honey" Lily patted his shoulder but it was more calming for her than him.

**"T-took?" sobbed Mrs. Cattermole. "I didn't t-take it from anybody. I b-bought it when I was eleven years old. It - it - it - chose me."**

**She cried harder than ever.**

**Umbridge laughed a soft girlish laugh that made Harry want to attack her. **

Some people's fingers twitched as if wanting to strangle her.

**She leaned forward over the barrier, the better to observe her victim, and something gold swung forward too, and dangled over the void: the locket.**

Everyone froze and suddenly the room became warmer. "Yes" maybe yelled cheerfully.

**Hermione had seen it; she let out a little squeak, but Umbridge and Yaxley, still intent upon their prey, were deaf to everything else.**

**"No," said Umbridge, "no, I don't think so, Mrs. Cattermole. Wands only choose witches or wizards. You are not a witch. I have your responses to the questionnaire that was sent to you here - Mafalda, pass them to me."**

"She clearly is a witch" Frank stated.

**Umbridge held out a small hand: She looked so toadlike at that moment that Harry was quite surprised not to see webs between the stubby fingers. Hermione's hands were shaking with shock. She fumbled in a pile of documents balanced on the chair beside her, finally withdrawing a sheaf of parchment with Mrs. Cattermole's name on it.**

**"That's - that's pretty, Dolores," she said, pointing at the pendant gleaming in the ruffled folds of Umbridge's blouse.**

**"What?" snapped Umbridge, glancing down. "Oh yes - an old family heirloom," she said, patting the locket lying on her large bosom. "The S stands for Selwyn... I am related to the Selwyns... Indeed, there are few pure-blood families to whom I am not related. ...A pity," she continued in a louder voice, flicking through Mrs. Cattermole's questionnaire, "that the same cannot be said for you. 'Parents professions: greengrocers'."**

"She's using it to up her blood status" Alice huffed not sounding surprised at all.

**Yaxley laughed jeeringly. Below, the fluffy silver cat patrolled up and down, and the dementors stood waiting in the corners.**

**It was Umbridge's lie that brought the blood surging into Harry's brain and obliterated his sense of caution - that the locket she had taken as a bribe from a petty criminal was being used to bolster her own pure-blood credentials. He raised his wand, not even troubling to keep it concealed beneath the Invisibility Cloak, and said, "Stupefy!"**

**There was a flash of red light; Umbridge crumpled and her forehead hit the edge of the balustrade: Mrs. Cattermole's papers slid off her lap onto the floor and, down below, the prowling silver cat vanished. Ice-cold air hit them like an oncoming wind: Yaxley, confused, looked around for the source of the trouble and saw Harry's disembodied hand and wand pointing at him. He tried to draw his own wand, but too late: "Stupefy!"**

"Now get out of there" Lily yelled, her hands a little shaky.

**Yaxley slid to the ground to lie curled on the floor.**

**"Harry!"**

**"Hermione, if you think I was going to sit here and let her pretend -"**

**"Harry, Mrs. Cattermole!"**

"Oh no." everyone said wide-eyed.

**Harry whirled around, throwing off the Invisibility Cloak; down below, the dementors had moved out of their corners; they were gliding toward the woman chained to the chair:**

**Whether because the Patronus had vanished or because they sensed that their masters were no longer in control, they seemed to have abandoned restraint. Mrs. Cattermole let out a terrible scream of fear as a slimy, scabbed hand grasped her chin and forced her face back.**

A few people whimpered.

**"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"**

**The silver stag soared from the tip of Harry's wand and leaped toward the dementors, which fell back and melted into the dark shadows again. The stag's light, more powerful and more warming than the cat's protection, filled the whole dungeon as it cantered around the room.**

James smiled at his friends. _It's a stag. _They smirked while everyone looked at them curiously, but never said anything.

**"Get the Horcrux," Harry told Hermione.**

**He ran back down the steps, stuffing the Invisibility Cloak into his back, and approached Mrs. Cattermole.**

**"You?" she whispered, gazing into his face. "But - but Reg said you were the one who submitted my name for questioning!"**

"Oh dear, that's not good" Alice smirked a little too happy considering the situation, when everyone looked at her she explained while rolling her eyes "Every time you're son plans, if it goes to plan then they get caught, if it turned into chaos then you're son escapes, think about it." They all grinned a little when they realized she was right.

**"Did I?" muttered Harry, tugging at the chains binding her arms, "Well, I've had a change of heart. Diffindo!" Nothing happened. "Hermione, how do I get rid of these chains?"**

**"Wait, I'm trying something up here -"**

**"Hermione, we're surrounded by dementors!"**

A few bit their lip, still a little cautious.

**"I know that, Harry, but if she wakes up and the locket's gone - I need to duplicate it - Geminio! There... That should fool her..."**

"Good thinking" Lily beamed, she was so glad Harry had Hermione.

**Hermione came running downstairs.**

**"Let's see... Relashio!"**

A few smiled, knowing that would work.

**The chains clinked and withdrew into the arms of the chair. Mrs. Cattermole looked just as frightened as ever before.**

**"I don't understand," she whispered.**

Moody was getting impatient "Just go with it, woman"

**"You're going to leave here with us," said Harry, pulling her to her feet. "Go home, grab your children, and get out, get out of the country if you've got to. Disguise yourselves and run. You've seen how it is, you won't get anything like a fair hearing here."**

"Good advice, Harry" Sirius nodded a little too serious

**"Harry," said Hermione, "how are we going to get out of here with all those dementors outside the door?"**

**"Patronuses," said Harry, pointing his wand at his own. The stag slowed and walked, still gleaming brightly, toward the door. "As many as we can muster; do yours, Hermione."**

**"Expec - Expecto patronum," said Hermione. Nothing happened.**

"She can't do it?" Everyone asked a little shocked.

"Patronuses, are more for people with a lot of will power and determination. Which is seems you're son has a lot of" he nodded to Lily and James who beamed with pride. "It is not a spell you can learn from a book."

**"It's the only spell she ever has trouble with," Harry told a completely bemused Mrs. Cattermole. "Bit unfortunate, really... Come on Hermione..."**

A few people laughed at what he had said.

**"Expecto patronum!"**

**A silver otter burst from the end of Hermione's wand and swam gracefully through the air to join the stag.**

Everyone cheered gratefully, they were happy Harry didn't do this all on his own.

**"C'mon," said Harry, and he led Hermione and Mrs. Cattermole to the door.**

**When the Patronuses glided out of the dungeon there were cries of shock from the people waiting outside. Harry looked around; the dementors were falling back on both sides of them, melding into the darkness, scattering before the silver creatures.**

**"It's been decided that you should all go home and go into hiding with your families," Harry told the waiting Muggle-born, who were dazzled by the light of the Patronuses and still cowering slightly. "Go abroad if you can. Just get well away from the Ministry. That's the - er - new official position. Now, if you'll just follow the Patronuses, you'll be able to leave the Atrium."**

James and Lily smiled, their son went there for one thing, and is now doing a lot more.

**They managed to get up the stone stops without being intercepted, but as they approached the lifts Harry started to have misgivings. If they emerged into the Atrium with a silver stag, and otter soaring alongside it, and twenty or so people, half of them accused Muggle-borns, he could not help feeling that they would attract unwanted attention. He had just reached this unwelcome conclusion when the lift clanged to a halt in front of them.**

**"Reg!" screamed Mrs. Cattermole, and she threw herself into Ron's arms. "Runcorn let me out, he attacked Umbridge and Yaxley, and he's told all of us to leave the country. I think we'd better do it, Reg, I really do, let's hurry home and fetch the children and - why are you so wet?"**

"At least she's listening to Harry, even though that's not her husband" Sirius shrugged looking on the bright side of things.

**"Water," muttered Ron, disengaging himself. "Harry, they know there are intruders inside the Ministry, something about a hole in Umbridge's office door. I reckon we've got five minutes if that -"**

Moody looked smug "I told you, didn't I, I told you it would get him caught" no one listened to him and tried not to frown too much, he was right.

**Hermione's Patronus vanished with a pop as she turned a horror struck face to Harry.**

**"Harry, if we're trapped here -!"**

**"We won't be if we move fast," said Harry. He addressed the silent group behind them, who were all gawping at him.**

**"Who's got wands?"**

**About half of them raised their hands.**

"That's good."

**"Okay, all of you who haven't got wands need to attach yourself to somebody who has. We'll need to be fast before they stop us. Come on."**

**They managed to cram themselves into two lifts. Harry's Patronus stood sentinel before the golden grilles as they shut and the lifts began to rise.**

**"Level eight," said the witch's cool voice, "Atrium."**

**Harry knew at once that they were in trouble. The Atrium was full of people moving from fireplace to fireplace, sealing them off.**

"No" Molly squeaked to her husband who looked very anxious.

**"Harry!" squeaked Hermione. "What are we going to -?"**

**"STOP!" Harry thundered, and the powerful voice of Runcorn echoed through the Atrium: The wizards sealing the fireplaces froze. **

Lily nearly smiled "I guess it is good that he picked Runcorn"

**"Follow me," he whispered to the group of terrified Muggle-borns, who moved forward in a huddle, shepherded by Ron and Hermione.**

**"What's up, Albert?" said the same balding wizard who had followed Harry out of the fireplace earlier. He looked nervous.**

"I think I would too"

**"This lot need to leave before you seal the exits," said Harry with all the authority he could muster.**

**The group of wizards in front of him looked at one another.**

**"We've been told to seal all exits and not let anyone -"**

**"Are you contradicting me?" Harry blustered. "Would you like me to have your family tree examined, like I had Dirk Cresswell's?"**

Everyone laughed, even McGonagall was trying not to laugh. "That was fair played." Sirius gasped with a lot of pride.

**"Sorry!" gasped the balding wizard, backing away. "I didn't mean nothing, Albert, but I thought... I thought they were in for questioning and..."**

"They are" Remus answered the man in the book with an amused twitch on his lips.

**"Their blood is pure," said Harry, and his deep voice echoed impressively through the hall. "Purer than many of yours, I daresay. Off you go," he boomed to the Muggle-borns, who scurried forward into the fireplaces and began to vanish in pairs. The Ministry wizards hung back, some looking confused, others scared and fearful. Then:**

**"Mary!"**

**Mrs. Cattermole looked over her shoulder. The real Reg Cattermole, no longer vomiting but pale and wan, had just come running out of a lift.**

"Oh no." Frank chuckled, he didn't really find this that bad because it was best to get her off their hands, but a lot of people were still looking anxious.

**"R- Reg?"**

**She looked from her husband to Ron, who swore loudly.**

"Ron" Molly scolded, forgetting everything for a moment then blushed.

**The balding wizard gaped, his head turning ludicrously from one Reg Cattermole to the other.**

**"Hey - what's going on? What is this?"**

**"Seal the exit! SEAL IT!"**

**Yaxley had burst out of another lift and was running toward the group beside the fireplaces, into which all of the Muggle-borns but Mrs. Cattermole had now vanished. As the balding wizard lifted his wand, Harry raised an enormous fist and punched him, sending him flying through the air.**

All the woman were too anxious to laugh or giggle but all the men looked like they would burst, only not laughing because they didn't want attack by the woman.

**"He's been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!" Harry shouted.**

**The balding wizard's colleagues set up and uproar, under cover of which Ron grabbed Mrs. Cattermole, pulled her into the still-open fireplace, and disappeared. Confused, Yaxley looked from Harry to the punched wizard, while the real Reg Cattermole screamed, "My wife! Who was that with my wife? What's going on?"**

**Harry saw Yaxley's head turn, saw an inkling of truth dawn on that brutish face.**

Everyone tensed again.

**"Come on!" Harry shouted at Hermione; he seized her hand and they jumped into the fireplace together as Yaxley's curse sailed over Harry's head. They spun for a few seconds before shooting up out of a toilet into a cubicle. Harry flung open the door: Ron was standing there beside the sinks, still wrestling with Mrs. Cattermole.**

**"Reg, I don't understand -"**

**"Let go, I'm not your husband, you've got to go home!"**

"Yes, that would be best."

**There was a noise in the cubicle behind them; Harry looked around; Yaxley had just appeared.**

"No," Lily and Molly yelled together.

**"LET'S GO!" Harry yelled. He seized Hermione by the hand and Ron by the arm and turned on the stop.**

**Darkness engulfed them, along with the sensation of compressing hands, but something was wrong... Hermione's hand seemed to be sliding out of his grip...**

"He grabbed her" Lily whimpered and put her head in her hands.

**He wondered whether he was going to suffocate; he could not breathe or see and the only solid things in the world were Ron's arm and Hermione's fingers, which were slowly slipping away...**

A few men were looking alarmed now too.

**And then he saw the door to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, with its serpent door knocker, but before he could draw breath, there was a scream and a flash of purple light: Hermione's hand was suddenly vicelike upon his and everything went dark again.**

"What happened?" James questioned Lily quickly.

"She changed course. She's disapperated as soon as she dropped Yaxley off at Grimmauld Place. So he couldn't track her."


	21. The Thief

_All the bold writing belongs to JK Rowling. Character's are all her's. None of it mine, expect the normal writing._

"Can we get food now?" Sirius asked desperately. "Please?" when he noticed Lily's raised eyebrow.

Dumbledore chuckled, "Of course," He wanted to talk to his brother about what they would need to read, because he was almost positive that they hadn't heard the end of Ariana, Or Gellert. But he couldn't, he knew his brother would blow up, he would just need to wait till the time came.

After everyone had been fed and were eager to read again, they all sat down. Wondering if there was any chance at all things would get better.

**Harry opened his eyes and was dazzled by gold and green; he had no idea what had happened, he only knew that he was lying on what seemed to be leaves and twigs.**

"Where is he?" Remus muttered to himself, curious about where they ended up.

** Struggling to draw breath into lungs that felt flattened, he blinked and realized that the gaudy glare was sunlight streaming through a canopy of leaves far above him. Then an object twitched close to his face. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, ready to face some small, fierce creature, but saw that the object was Ron's foot. Looking around, Harry saw that they and Hermione were lying on a forest floor, apparently alone.**

Sirius smiled "Good, there hidden."

"He said 'apparently alone'" Moody grunted disapprovingly "And it depends what forest he's in"

**Harry's first thought was of the Forbidden Forest, and for a moment, even though he knew how foolish and dangerous it would be for them to appear in the grounds of Hogwarts, his heart leapt at the thought of sneaking through the trees to Hagrid's hut. **

"Well, too bad boy. Because it's dangerous" Moody informed the book, everyone had to fight a smile.

**However, in the few moments it took for Ron to give a low groan and Harry to start crawling toward him, he realized that this was not the Forbidden Forest; The trees looked younger, they were more widely spaced, the ground clearer.**

Lily looked a little worried, they shouldn't be just anyway, they needed to know where they were.

**He met Hermione, also on her hands and knees, at Ron's head. The moment his eyes fell upon Ron, all other concerns fled Harry's mind, for blood drenched the whole of Ron's left side and his face stood out, grayish-white, against the leaf-strewn earth. **

Molly gasped and grabbed Arther's arm. _What had happened? _Everyone thought._How is he all bloody?_Arther had a pained but thoughtful expression while Molly just sat wide-eyed waiting to know what would happen.

**The Polyjuice Potion was wearing off now: Ron was halfway between Cattermole and himself in appearance, his hair turning redder and redder as his face drained of the little color it had left.**

**"What's happened to him?"**

Molly looked white "yeah?"

**"Splinched," said Hermione, her fingers already busy at Ron's sleeve, where the blood was wettest and darkest.**

She groaned, she was now mentally cursing how she should have taught her son to apperarate properly.

**Harry watched, horrified, as she tore open Ron's short. He had always thought of Splinching as something comical, but this... His insides crawled unpleasantly as Hermione laid bare Ron's upper arm, where a great chunk of flesh was missing, scooped cleanly away as though by a knife.**

Some people looked sick, they could imagine what that looked like, Molly was looking white as a sheet.

**"Harry, quickly, in my bag, there's a small bottle labeled 'Essence of Dittany' -"**

**"Bag - right -"**

"Yeah, she seems to have the world in that bag." Sirius joked, lightening the tension a little.

**Harry sped to the place where Hermione had landed, seized the tiny beaded bag, and thrust his hand inside it. At once, object after object began presenting itself to his touch: He felt the leather spines of books, woolly sleeves of jumpers, heels of shoes -**

Most people shook their heads fondly, that girl had everything.

**"Quickly!"**

**He grabbed his wand from the ground and pointed it into the depths of the magical bag.**

**"Accio Dittany!"**

Aberforth rolled his eyes, why didn't the boy do that in the first place?

**A small brown bottle zoomed out of the bag; he caught it and hastened back to Hermione and Ron, whose eyes were now half-closed, strips of white eyeball all that were visible between his lids.**

Molly was still sitting stiffly. Pale looking.

**"He's fainted," said Hermione, who was also rather pale; she no longer looked like Mafalda, though her hair was still gray in places. "Unstopper it for me, Harry, my hands are shaking."**

**Harry wrenched the stopper off the little bottle, Hermione took it and poured three drops of the potion onto the bleeding wound. Greenish smoke billowed upward and when it had cleared, Harry saw that the bleeding had stopped. The wound now looked several days old; new skin stretched over what had just been open flesh.**

Molly let out a breath, her son would be fine with Hermione there.

**"Wow," said Harry.**

**"It's all I feel safe doing," said Hermione shakily. "There are spells that would put him completely right, but I daren't try in case I do them wrong and cause more damage... He's lost so much blood already..."**

"Yeah, that's probably for the best" Lily agreed quietly with this girl.

**"How did he get hurt? I mean" - Harry shook his head, trying to clear it, to make sense of whatever had just taken place - "why are we here? I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place?"**

**Hermione took a deep breath. She looked close to tears.**

**"Harry, I don't think we're going to be able to go back there."**

Sirius groaned "No, there are going to have to stay on the run" _Great, just what they need._

**"What d'you -?"**

**"As we Disapparated, Yaxley caught hold of me and I couldn't get rid of him, he was too strong, and he was still holding on when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, and then - well, I think he must have seen the door, and thought we were stopping there, so he slackened his grip and I managed to sake him off and I brought us here instead!"**

"Where's 'there'?" Frank asked, still a little tense.

**"But then, where's he? Hang on... You don't mean he's at Grimmauld Place? He can't get in there?"**

**Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she nodded.**

Moody moaned to himself quietly, so no one could hear him. _They need to get their act together _They might impress him a lot, but that doesn't mean they can let their emotions get in the way.

**"Harry, I think he can. I - I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I'd already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm's protection. Since Dumbledore died, we're Secret-Keepers, so I've given him the secret, haven't I?"**

Sirius closed his eyes, he wondered what the Death Eater would think when they saw the inside of the old 'dark magic' home.

**There was no pretending; Harry was sure she was right. It was a serious blow. If Yaxley could now get inside the house, there was no way that they could return. Even now, he could be bringing other Death Eaters in there by Apparition. Gloomy and oppressive though the house was, it had been their one safe refuge; even, now that Kreacher was so much happier and friendlier, a kind of home. With a twinge of regret that had nothing to do with food, Harry imagined the house-elf busying himself over the steak-and-kidney pie that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would never eat.**

A few chuckled softly, there were out in the woods and Harry was thinking about the steak-and-kidney pie that he wasn't going to get.

**"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"**

**"Don't be stupid, it wasn't your fault! If anything, it was mine..."**

Moody nodded, and everyone just ignored him. It wasn't Harry's fault, that was just Moody, being Moddy.

**Harry put his hand in his pocket and drew out Mad-Eye's eye. Hermione recoiled, looking horrified.**

Lily smiled, yes she would be too.

**"Umbridge had stuck it to her office door, to spy on people. I couldn't leave it there... but that's how they knew there were intruders."**

Some people sighed. They guess he was right about that, but there would never have been able to leave it on the door, that just wasn't right. Harry had done the right thing.

**Before Hermione could answer, Ron groaned and opened his eyes. He was still gray and his face glistened with sweat.**

**"How d'you feel?" Hermione whispered.**

**"Lousy," croaked Ron, wincing as he felt his injured arm. "Where are we?"**

**"In the woods where they held the Quidditch World Cup," said Hermione. "I wanted somewhere enclosed, undercover, and this was -"**

A lot of people nodded, that was good idea.

**"- the first place you thought of," Harry finished for her, glancing around at the apparently deserted glade. He could not help remembering what had happened the last time they had Apparated to the first place Hermione had thought of - how Death Eaters had found them within minutes. Had it been Legilimency? Did Voldemort or his henchmen know, even now, where Hermione had taken them?**

Lily winced, she hoped Voldemort or Death Eaters didn't find Harry this time.

**"D'you reckon we should move on?" Ron asked Harry, and Harry could tell by the look on Ron's face that he was thinking the same.**

"No, don't" Molly nearly yelled. They couldn't move on, with Ron's arm in that state. A lot of people agreed because they nodded.

**"I dunno."**

**Ron still looked pale and clammy. He had made no attempt to sit up and it looked as though he was too weak to do so. The prospect of moving him was daunting.**

Molly nodded agreeing with Harry, And hoping there stayed still.

**"Let's stay here for now," Harry said.**

**Looking relieved, Hermione sprang to her feet.**

Molly looked relieved aswell.

**"Where are you going?" asked Ron.**

**"If we're staying, we should put some protective enchantments around the place," she replied, and raising her wand, she began to walk in a wide circle around Harry and Ron, murmuring incantations as she went. Harry saw little disturbances in the surrounding air: It was as if Hermione had cast a heat haze upon their clearing.**

Moody nodded approving, everyone shook their heads. It was strange how fast his mood could change.

**"Salvio Hexia... Protego Totalum... Repello Muggletum... Muffliato... You could get out the tent, Harry..."**

**"Tent?"**

**"In the bag!"**

**"In the... of course," said Harry.**

Nearly everyone laughed lightly. _Of course it was in the bag … _Then added sarcastically _what wasn't._

**He did not bother to grope inside it this time, but used another Summoning Charm. The tent emerged in a lumpy mass of canvas, ropes, and poles. Harry recognized it, partly because of the smell of cats, as the same tent in which they had slept on the night of the Quidditch World Cup.**

James eyes light up. "He actually went to the Quidditch Cup?" He was nearly clapping with excitement, he hoped they heard more about it.

Lily smiled at her husband's antics "Not now, honey" she whispered but they seemed to have no affect.

**"I thought this belonged to that bloke Perkins at the Ministry?" he asked, starting to disentangle the pent pegs.**

**"Apparently he didn't want it back, his lumbago's so bad," said Hermione, now performing complicated figure-of-eight movements with her wand. "so Ron's dad said I could borrow it. Erecto!" she added, pointing her wand at the misshapen canvas, which in one fluid motion rose into the air and settled, fully constructed, onto the ground before Harry, out of whose startled hands a tent peg soared, to land with a final thud at the end of a guy rope**

**"Cave Inimicum," Hermione finished with a skyward flourish. "That's as much as I can do. At the very least, we should know they're coming; I can't guarantee it will keep out Vol -"**

**"Don't say the name!" Ron cut across her, his voice harsh.**

**Harry and Hermione looked at each other.**

"He wasn't like that before?" Sirius raised an eyebrow "I have heard him say Voldemort … haven't you?" They asked the rest of the group. They all nodded, looking a little confused.

**"I'm sorry," Ron said, moaning a little as he raised himself to look at them, "but it feels like a - a jinx or something. Can't we call him You-Know-Who - please?"**

**"Dumbledore said fear of a name -" began Harry.**

Dumbledore smiled to himself, he knew what Harry was about to say.

**"In case you hadn't noticed, mate, calling You-Know-Who by his name didn't do Dumbledore much good in the end," Ron snapped back. **

A lot of people looked taken aback at what Ron said. They liked the Ron they had read about, the Ron they had heard about was funny and tactless ect. but he wasn't mean.

**"Just - just show You-Know-Who some respect, will you?"**

Sirius sputtered "Respect?" He looked at the faces around him "Did I just hear that right? Did Ron just show him respect?" they all nodded to him, they didn't think he deserved respect at all.

**"Respect?" Harry repeated, but Hermione shot him a warning look; apparently he was not to argue with Ron while the latter was in such a weakened condition.**

Usually they would sniggered but Sirius was still angry at the fact Ron thought Voldemort deserves respect.

**Harry and Hermione half carried, half dragged Ron through the entrance of the tent. The interior was exactly as Harry remembered it; a small flat, complete with bathroom and tiny kitchen. He shoved aside an old armchair and lowered Ron carefully onto the lower berth of a bunk bed. Even this very short journey had turned Ron whiter still, and once they had settled him on the mattress he closed his eyes again and did not speak for a while.**

**"I'll make some tea," said Hermione breathlessly, pulling kettle and mugs from the depths of her bag and heading toward the kitchen.**

"Well, it's nice to know Hermione's prepared for nearly everything." Lily giggled, all the woman nodded and the men rolled their eyes, because of Hermione's kettle and mugs.

**Harry found the hot drink as welcome as the firewhisky had been on the night that Mad-Eye had died; it seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest. After a minute or two, Ron broke the silence.**

**"What d'you reckon happened to the Cattermoles?"**

"I forgot about them" Lily mumbled, the worry showing in her quiet voice, she was now using.

**"With any luck, they'll have got away," said Hermione, clutching her hot mug for comfort. "As long as Mr. Cattermole had his wits about him, he'll have transported Mrs. Cattermole by Side-Along-Apparition and they'll be fleeing the country right now with their children. That's what Harry told her to do."**

**"Blimey, I hope they escaped," said Ron, leaning back on his pillows. The tea seemed to be doing him good; a little of his color had returned. "I didn't get the feeling Reg Cattermole was all that quick-witted, though, the way everyone was talking to me when I was him. God, I hope they made it... If they both end up in Azkaban because of us..."**

"They won't" Alice told everyone firmly. Even the ones who were doubting it, didn't say anything a loud.

**Harry looked over at Hermione and the question he had been about to ask - about whether Mrs. Cattermole's lack of a wand would prevent her Apparating alongside her husband - died in his throat. Hermione was watching Ron fret over the fate of the Cattermoles, and there was such tenderness in her expression that Harry felt almost as if he had surprised her in the act of kissing him.**

Molly smiled, while her and Lily cooed. Most sniggered to each other.

**"So, have you got it?" Harry asked her, partly to remind her that he was there.**

**"Got - got what?" she said with a little start.**

Sirius a little chuckle

**"What did we just go through all that for? The locket! Where's the locket?"**

James nearly fell out the seat the way he turned so suddenly "I forgot they got that." he clicked his fingers.

**"You got it?" shouted Ron, raising himself a little higher on his pillows. "No one tells me anything! Blimey, you could have mentioned it!"**

**"Well, we were running for our lives from the Death Eaters, weren't we?" said Hermione. "Here."**

"True" Frank chuckled.

**And she pulled the locket out of the pocket of her robes and handed it to Ron.**

**It was as large as a chicken's egg. An ornate letter S, inlaid with many small green stones, glinted dully in the diffused light shining through the tent's canvas roof.**

**"There isn't any chance someone's destroyed it since Kreacher had it?" asked Ron hopefully. "I mean, are we sure it's still a Horcrux?"**

Remus sighed "I think you're being too hopeful, Ron."

**"I think so," said Hermione, taking it back from him and looking at it closely. "There'd be some sign of damage if it had been magically destroyed."**

**She passed it to Harry, who turned it over in his fingers. The thing looked perfect, pristine. He remembered the mangled remains of the diary, and how the stone in the Horcrux ring had been cracked open when Dumbledore destroyed it.**

Most deflated, they had been hoping that it had been destroyed.

**"I reckon Kreacher's right," said Harry. "We're going to have to work out how to open this thing before we can destroy it."**

**Sudden awareness of what he was holding, of what lived behind the little golden doors, hit Harry as he spoke. Even**

**after all their efforts to find it, he felt a violent urge to fling the locket from him. **

"No wonder." Sirius shuddered. "It's a part of him. And well, you're touching it"

**Mastering himself again, he tried to pry the locket apart with his fingers, then attempted the charm Hermione had used to open Regulus's bedroom door. Neither worked. He handed the locket back to Ron and Hermione, each of whom did their best, but were no more successful at opening it than he had been.**

**"Can you feel it, though?" Ron asked in a hushed voice, as he held it tight in his clenched fist.**

**"What d'you mean?"**

**Ron passed the Horcrux to Harry. After a moment or two, Harry thought he knew what Ron meant. Was it his own blood pulsing through his veins that he could feel, or was it something beating inside the locket, like a tiny metal heart?**

Most in the room shuddered now, they could just feel it against their skin, if the thought about it.

**"What are we going to do with it?" Hermione asked.**

**"Keep it safe till we work out how to destroy it." Harry replied, and, little though he wanted to, he hung the chain around his own neck, dropping the locket out of sight beneath his robes, where it rested against his chest beside the pouch Hagrid had given him.**

Frank looked at Dumbledore cautious "Is that safe?" He didn't think he would like having the Horcrux that close.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a second of two. "No, I don't think it is."

**"I think we should take it in turns to keep watch outside the tent," he added to Hermione, standing up and stretching. "And we'll need to think about some food as well. You stay there," he added sharply, as Ron attempted to sit up and turned a nasty shade of green.**

**With the Sneakoscope Hermione had given Harry for his birthday set carefully upon the table in the tent, Harry and Hermione spent the rest of the day sharing the role of lookout. However, the Sneakoscope remained silent and still upon its point all day, and whether because of the protective enchantments and Muggle-repelling charms Hermione had spread around them, or because people rarely ventured this way, their patch of wood remained deserted, apart from occasional birds and squirrels. Evening brought no change; Harry lit his wand as he swapped places with Hermione at ten o'clock, and looked out upon a deserted scene, noting the bats fluttering high above him across the single patch of starry sky visible from their protected clearing.**

_At least they aren't getting bothered_. Most thought.

**He felt hungry now, and a little light-headed. Hermione had not packed any food in her magical bag, as she had assumed that they would be returning to Grimmauld Place that night, **

Sirius flung his hands up "Really? She packs literally everything else but not food?"

**so they had had nothing to eat except some wild mushrooms that Hermione had collected from amongst the nearest trees and stewed in a Billycan. After a couple of mouthfuls Ron had pushed his portion away, looking queasy; Harry had only persevered so as to not hurt Hermione's feelings.**

**The surrounding silence was broken by odd rustlings and what sounded like crackings of twigs: Harry thought that they were caused by animals rather than people, yet he kept his wand held tight at the ready. His insides, already uncomfortable due to their inadequate helping of rubbery mushrooms, tingled with unease.**

Most scrunched up their faces, that didn't sound pleasant at all.

**He had though that he would feel elated if they managed to steal back the Horcrux, but somehow he did not; all he felt as he sat looking out at the darkness, of which his wand lit only a tiny part, was worry about what would happen next. It was as though he had been hurtling toward this point for weeks, months, maybe even years, but how he had come to an abrupt halt, run out of road.**

Sirius sighed leaning back in his chair "That would suck," everyone rolled their eyes but they agreed.

**There were other Horcruxes out there somewhere, but he did not have the faintest idea where they could be. He did not even know what all of them were. Meanwhile he was at a loss to know how to destroy the only one that they had found, the Horcrux that currently lay against the bare flesh of his chest. **

Again most shuddered at the thought of that thing touching so close to Harry's own heart. And also they had realized how truly stuck this boy was.

**Curiously, it had not taken heat from his body, but lay so cold against his skin it might just have emerged from icy water. From time to time Harry thought, or perhaps imagined, that he could feel the tiny heartbeat ticking irregularly alongside his own. Nameless forebodings crept upon him as he sat there in the dark. He tried to resist them, push them away, yet they came at him relentlessly. Neither can live while the other survives. **

"I would hate knowing that a Prophecy made something like that. Then it started to control my life." Lily sighed, she had never really believed in all that sort of magic.

**Ron and Hermione, now talking softly behind him in the tent, could walk away if they wanted to: He could not. And it seemed to Harry as he sat there trying to master his own fear and exhaustion, that the Horcrux against his chest was ticking away the time he had left... Stupid idea, he told himself, don't think that...**

Lily looked appalled "Yes, don't think like that." Most nodded. This was not the time for Harry to have negative thoughts, and most just didn't want Harry to die.

**His scar was starting to prickle again. He was afraid that he was making it happen by having these thoughts, and tried to direct them into another channel. He thought of poor Kreacher, who had expected them home and had received Yaxley instead. Would the elf keep silent or would he tell the Death Eater everything he knew? Harry wanted to believe that Kreacher had changed towards him in the past month, that he would be loyal now, but who knew what would happen? What if the Death Eaters tortured the elf? **

Sirius knew Kreacher wouldn't tell "He'll be loyal. Trust me" He smiled at Lily reassuring her, and she looked a little more relaxed.

**Sick images swarmed into Harry's head and he tried to push these away too, for there was nothing he could do for Kreacher: He and Hermione had already decided against trying to summon him; what if someone from the Ministry came too? They could not count on elfish Apparition being free from the same flaw that had taken Yaxley to Grimmauld Place on the hem of Hermione's sleeve.**

Most knew it would be ok to summon him, but thought it was best just in case.

**Harry's scar was burning now. He thought that there was so much they did not know: Lupin had been right about magic they had never encountered or imagined. Why hadn't Dumbledore explained more? Had he thought that there would be time; that he would live for years, for centuries perhaps, like his friend Nicolas Flamel? If so, he had been wrong... Snape had seen to that... Snape, the sleeping snake, who had struck at the top of the tower... And Dumbledore had fallen... fallen...**

Everyone gulped. They didn't want to hear about Dumbledore's death, again.

**"Give it to me, Gregorovitch."**

They sighed. Knowing this was most likely another vision. Dumbledore was thinking about how Harry could see this, Remus, Lily and a few others were thinking too but only Dumbledore was thinking anything possible. He wasn't going to voice it in case he was scaring the Potter family, more than he needed to.

**Harry's voice was high, clear, and cold, his wand held in front of him by a long-fingered white hand. The man at whom he was pointing was suspended upside down in midair, though there were no ropes holding him; he swung there, invisibly and eerily bound, his limbs wrapped about him, his terrified face, on a level with Harry's ruddy due to the blood that had rushed to his head. He had pure-white hair and a thick, bushy beard: a trussed-up Father Christmas.**

A lot of people had a lot of sympathy in their eyes for this man. This man was not going to come out of this well, if he was going to come out at all.

**"I have it not, I have it no more! It was, many years ago, stolen from me!"**

**"Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Gregorovitch. He knows... He always knows."**

"I think he's too scared to lie, right now anyway." Frank assured.

**The hanging man's pupils were wide, dilated with fear, and they seemed to swell, bigger and bigger until their blackness swallowed Harry whole -**

**And how Harry was hurrying along a dark corridor in stout little Gregorovitch's wake as he held a lantern aloft: Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage and his lantern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair. In the split second that the lantern's light illuminated him, Harry saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow of laughter.**

"Wait what?" James asked Dumbledore, looking very confused.

"I think that Voldemort is looking inside Gregorovitch's mind Mr. Potter" He wasn't really paying attention to that though. He knew the description was his friend, and he knew his brother knew that too, with the look he was giving him. He decided he would just take whatever came.

**And Harry was hurtling back out of those wide, tunnellike pupils and Gregorovitch's face was stricken with terror.**

**"Who was the thief, Gregorovitch?" said the high cold voice.**

**"I do not know, I never knew, a young man - no - please - PLEASE!"**

Aberforth growled quietly but everyone heard him "I could tell you" they looked at him confused. Sirius clucked up the courage to ask as it seems no one else would.

"What do you mean Aberforth?"

"I know who the man is." He answered simply and turned to his brother, for him to continue reading but not looking him in the eye.

**A scream that went on and on and then a burst of green light -**

A lot of woman looked really upset. They knew Voldemort just killed a lot of people without a second thought, but to think of it like this. He threw a tantrum like a child but the only difference is the child usually gets what he wants without hurting people, but Voldemort usually gets more questions with answers and someone dead.

**"Harry!"**

**He opened his eyes, panting, his forehead throbbing. He had passed out against the side of the tent, had slid sideways down the canvas, and was sprawled on the ground. He looked up at Hermione, whose bushy hair obscured the tiny patch of sky visible through the dark branches high above them.**

**"Dream," he said, sitting up quickly and attempting to meet Hermione's glower with a look of innocence. "Must've dozed off, sorry."**

Most snorted, they were trying to shake off the last thing they had just heard.

**"I know it was your scar! I can tell by the look on your face! You were looking into Vol -"**

**"Don't say his name!" came Ron's angry voice from the depths of the tent.**

Most looked extremely confused now.

**"Fine," retorted Hermione, "You-Know-Who's mind, then!"**

**"I didn't mean it to happen!" Harry said. "It was a dream! Can you control what you dream about, Hermione?"**

Most nodded thinking Harry was in the right here.

**"If you just learned to apply Occlumency -"**

**But Harry was not interested in being told off; he wanted to discuss what he had just seen.**

"Exactly, if she just listens to him."

**"He's found Gregorovitch, Hermione, and I think he's killed him, but before he killed him he read Gregorovitch's mind and I saw -"**

**"I think I'd better take over the watch if you're so tired you're falling sleep," said Hermione coldly.**

Most sighed, they all liked Hermione but she had to give Harry a break, when it came to these things. Like the visions.

**"I can finish the watch!"**

**"No, you're obviously exhausted. Go and lie down."**

**She dropped down in the mouth of the tent, looking stubborn. Angry, but wishing to avoid a row, Harry ducked back inside.**

**Ron's still-pale face was poking out from the lower bunk; Harry climbed into the one above him, lay down, and looked up at the dark canvas ceiling. After several moments, Ron spoke in a voice so low that it would not carry to Hermione, huddle in the entrance.**

**"What's You-Know-Who doing?"**

A lot of people smiled, at least Harry had someone to confine in.

**Harry screwed up his eyes in the effort to remember every detail, then whispered into the darkness.**

**"He found Gregorovitch. He had him tied up, he was torturing him."**

Lily shook her head sadly "No, Harry I think he's dead."

**"How's Gregorovitch supposed to make him a new wand if he's tied up?"**

**"I dunno... It's weird, isn't it?"**

**Harry closed his eyes, thinking of all that he had seen and heard. The more he recalled, the less sense it made... Voldemort had said nothing about Harry's wand, nothing about the twin cores, nothing about Gregorovitch making a new and more powerful wand to beat Harry's...**

Dumbledore knew exactly what this was about now, what Voldemort was after. It all made sense. And the thing was in his pocket right now.

**"He wanted something from Gregorovitch," Harry said, eyes still closed tight. "He asked him to hand it over, but Gregorovitch said it had been stolen from him... and then... then..."**

**He remembered how he, as Voldemort, had seemed to hurtle through Gregorovitch's eyes, into his memories...**

**"He read Gregorovitch's mind, and I saw this young bloke perched on a windowsill, and he fired a curse at Gregorovitch and jumped out of sight. He stole it, he stole whatever You-Know-Who's after. And I... I think I've seen him somewhere..."**

Dumbledore didn't know were Harry would have seen him, but he knew this wasn't the end. And when he saw his brother grimace he knew he wasn't the only one not looking forward to this, of course it was for different reasons but they both knew they weren't going to enjoy his reading as much as they first did.

**Harry wished he could have another glimpse of the laughing boy's face. The theft had happened many years ago, according to Gregorovitch. Why did the young thief look familiar?**

**The noises of the surrounding woods were muffled inside the tent; all Harry could hear was Ron's breathing. After a while, Ron whispered, "Couldn't you see what the thief was holding?"**

**"No... it must've been something small."**

_Yeah. _Dumbledore thought, a little amused.

**"Harry?"**

**The wooden slats of Ron's bunk creaked as he repositioned himself in bed.**

**"Harry, you don't reckon You-Know-Who's after something else to turn into a Horcrux?"**

Frank held his hands up. "Please don't even think about that. I don't think it's possible to make another."

**"I don't know," said Harry slowly. "Maybe. But wouldn't it be dangerous for him to make another one? Didn't Hermione say he had pushed his soul to the limit already?"**

"I thought one would push your soul to the limit." Lily muttered to James weakly, causing him to somewhat chuckled a little.

**"Yeah, but maybe he doesn't know that."**

**"Yeah...maybe," said Harry.**

**He had been sure that Voldemort had been looking for a way around the problem of the twin cores, sure that Voldemort sought a solution from the old wandmaker... and yet he had killed him, apparently without asking him a single question about wandlore.**

Remus looked very frustrated, no one except James and Sirius had saw him like this, and they saw him on occasion.

**What was Voldemort trying to find? Why, with the Ministry of Magic and the Wizarding world at his feet, was he far away, intent on the pursuit of an object that Gregorovitch had once owned, and which had been stolen by the unknown thief?**

**Harry could still see the blond-haired youth's face; it was merry, wild; there was a Fred and George-ish air of triumphant trickery about him. **

Aberforth didn't look happy, with the two innocent, playful twins being compared to _him._

**He had soared from the windowsill like a bird, and Harry had seen him before, but he could not think where...**

"I wish I could say the same" Aberforth simply stated, no one but his brother knew what he was talking about, also his brother felt somewhat the same. He missed their friendship, he doesn't regret his friendship. He regrets the man his friend become.

**With Gregorovitch dead, it was the merry-faced thief who was in danger now, and it was on him that Harry's thoughts dwelled, as Ron's snores began to rumble from the lower bunk and as he himself drifted slowly into sleep once more.**


	22. Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

_All the bold writing belongs to JK Rowling. Character's are all her's. None of it mine, expect the normal writing._

* * *

"It seems we have a other back-page story, it's when Harry is fifteen, would you like me to read it?" Dumbledore asked the group and they all nodded.

**"What's the Order of the -?" Harry began.**

**"Not here, boy!" snarled Moody. "Wait till we're inside!"**

"Hey Moody, we get to hear more about you" Sirius announced just to annoy Moody, which worked.

**He pulled the piece of parchment out of Harry's hand and set fire to it with his wand-tip. As the message curled into flames and floated to the ground, Harry looked around at the houses again.**

**They were standing outside number eleven; he looked to the left and saw number ten; to the right, however, was number thirteen.**

**"But where's -?"**

**"Think about what you've just memorized," said Lupin quietly.**

"Moony," Sirius shouted. Others rolled their eyes.

Dumbledore was thinking about what charm that was, so was Lily.

**Harry thought, and no sooner had he reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, than a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, followed swiftly by dirty walls and grimy windows. It was as though an extra house had inflated, pushing those on either side out of its way. Harry gaped at it. The stereo in number eleven thudded on. Apparently the Muggles inside hadn't felt anything.**

"That is so cool." Lily mumbled to James who chuckled. Magic still sometimes amazed Lily.

**"Come on, hurry," growled Moody, prodding Harry in the back.**

"Oi" James said to Moody who rolled his eyes and never replied.

**Harry walked up the worn stone steps, staring at the newly materialized door. Its black paint was shabby and scratched. The silver doorknocker was in the form of a twisted serpent. There was no keyhole or letterbox.**

"Yeah, doesn't change, does it." Sirius muttered darkly. He hated that house, the one he grew up in.

**Lupin pulled out his wand and tapped the door once. Harry heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain. The door creaked open.**

**"Get in quick, Harry," Lupin whispered, "but don't go far inside and don't touch anything."**

"Good advice." Sirius muttered to himself but Remus with werewolf hearing heard him.

**Harry stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. He could smell damp, dust and a sweetish, rotting smell; the place had the feeling of a derelict building. He looked over his shoulder and saw the others filing in behind him, Lupin and Tonks carrying his trunk and Hedwig's cage. **

Sirius chuckled. He still couldn't get over the fact of Remus and Dora.

**Moody was standing on the top step releasing the balls of light the Put-Outer had stolen from the streetlamps; they flew back to their bulbs and the square glowed momentarily with orange light before Moody limped inside and closed the front door, so that the darkness in the hall became complete.**

**"Here -"**

**He rapped Harry hard over the head with his wand; Harry felt as though something hot was trickling down his back this time and knew that the Disillusionment Charm must have lifted.**

"Good description." Dedalus nodded.

**"Now stay still, everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here," Moody whispered.**

**The others' hushed voices were giving Harry an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person. He heard a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. Harry heard something scuttling behind the baseboard. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents.**

"Welcome, to the Noble and Ancient House of Black" Sirius announced in a clearly disgusted voice. No one could blame him though.

**There were hurried footsteps and Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley, emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried towards them, though Harry noticed that she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time he had seen her.**

Molly blushed, But Arthur smiled at his wife.

**"Oh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" she whispered, pulling him into a rib-cracking hug before holding him at arm's length and examining him critically. "You're looking peaky; you need feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid."**

"Thank you Molly. It seems you were always there for him." Lily smiled but she did feel a little jealous, of this mother being "there for her son.

"It's my pleasure dear." Molly answered with a knowing smile.

**She turned to the gang of wizards behind him and whispered urgently, "He's just arrived, the meetings started."**

Elphias Doge asked Dumbledore "Do you think that's the order?" and Dumbledore nodded.

**The wizards behind Harry all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past him towards the door through which Mrs. Weasley had just come. Harry made to follow Lupin, but Mrs. Weasley held him back.**

**"No, Harry, the meetings only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meetings over, then we'll have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall," she added in an urgent whisper.**

"I don't know why you aren't letting him, he sounds like he should be there" Aberforth pointed out, and most nodded. They thought that too.

**"Why?"**

**"I don't want anything to wake up."**

Sirius chuckled, but mostly no one else understood.

**"What d'you -?"**

**"I'll explain later, I've got to hurry, I'm supposed to be at the meeting - I'll just show you where you're sleeping."**

**Pressing her finger to her lips, she led him on tiptoe past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which Harry supposed there must be another door, and after skirting a large umbrella stand that looked as though it had been made from a severed troll's leg they started up the dark staircase, passing a row of shrunken heads mounted on plaques on the wall. A closer look showed Harry that the heads belonged to house-elves. All of them had the same rather snout-like nose.**

"Heads? Of house-elf's" Lily whispered concerned yet horrified.

Sirius nodded but didn't explain.

**Harry's bewilderment deepened with every step he took. What on earth were they doing in a house that looked as though it belonged to the darkest of wizards?**

"That's because it does Harry." Sirius said

**"Mrs. Weasley, why -?"**

**"Ron and Hermione will explain everything, dear, I've really got to dash," Mrs. Weasley whispered distractedly. "There -" they had reached the second landing, "- you're the door on the right. I'll call you when it's over."**

**And she hurried off downstairs again.**

"Something tells me, you didn't want to tell him" Emmeline Vance muttered

**Harry crossed the dingy landing, turned the bedroom doorknob, which was shaped like a serpents head, and opened the door.**

**He caught a brief glimpse of a gloomy high-ceilinged, twin-bedded room; then there was a loud twittering noise, followed by an even louder shriek, and his vision was completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair. **

Sirius and James snorted and a few chuckled at the description.

**Hermione had thrown herself on to him in a hug that nearly knocked him flat, while Ron's tiny owl, Pigwidgeon, zoomed excitedly round and round their heads.**

Molly looked a little happy at the mention of Ron's owl but no one knew why.

**"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless - but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got things to tell us - the Dementors! When we heard - and that Ministry hearing - it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations -"**

**"Let him breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning as he closed the door behind Harry. **

"Yeah, Hermione" Remus chuckled a little, but he nodded with her, she was right they couldn't expel him for that.

**He seemed to have grown several more inches during their month apart, making him taller and more gangly looking than ever, though the long nose, bright red hair and freckles were the same.**

**Still beaming, Hermione let go of Harry, but before she could say another word there was a soft whooshing sound and something white soared from the top of a dark wardrobe and landed gently on Harry's shoulder.**

**"Hedwig!"**

"It's his owl." Lily smiled. "This is two years before she died." She added sadly.

**The snowy owl clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately as Harry stroked her feathers.**

Most people in the room smiled at that.

**"She's been in a right state," said Ron. "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this -"**

**He showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut.**

"Why did she do that?" Lily asked startled.

James chuckled a little "He must have really wanted replies."

**"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know -"**

**"We wanted to give them to you, mate," said Ron. "Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you'd do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us -"**

**"- swear not to tell me," said Harry. "Yeah, Hermione's already said."**

"Something tells me he's not in the best mood, right now."

**The warm glow that had flared inside him at the sight of his two best friends was extinguished as something icy flooded the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden - after yearning to see them for a solid month — he felt he would rather Ron and Hermione left him alone.**

"What is wrong with him?" Lily was now concerned but no one knew, they didn't even know why they were reading this chapter.

**There was a strained silence in which Harry stroked Hedwig automatically, not looking at either of the others.**

**"He seemed to think it was best," said Hermione rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."**

**"Right," said Harry. He noticed that her hands, too, bore the marks of Hedwigs beak and found that he was not at all sorry.**

"That is not, the Harry, we have been reading about." Remus said shocked, just like everyone else. "We have heard him, when he's been upset and moody and such but he's never been cruel though any of that."

**"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles -" Ron began.**

**"Yeah?" said Harry, raising his eyebrows. "Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?"**

Again everyone was exchanging shocked glances.

**"Well, no-but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time-"**

**Harry felt a great jolt in his guts as though he had just missed a step going downstairs. So everyone had known he was being followed, except him.**

"I'll admit, that would be very annoying and it upset me too." Lily admitted.

**"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" said Harry, doing his utmost to keep his voice even. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"**

"Harry." Lily scolded.

**"He was so angry," said Hermione, in an almost awestruck voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."**

Everyone was wondering what had really happened.

**"Well, I'm glad he left," Harry said coldly. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."**

**"Aren't you… aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" said Hermione quietly.**

**"No," Harry lied defiantly. **

"He's had a hearing?" Minerva asked Dumbledore who nodded.

**He walked away from them, looking around, with Hedwig nestled contentedly on his shoulder, but this room was not likely to raise his spirits. It was dank and dark. A blank stretch of canvas in an ornate picture frame was all that relieved the bareness of the peeling walls, and as Harry passed it he thought he heard someone, who was lurking out of sight, snigger.**

"I know exactly who that is." Sirius huffed.

**"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" Harry asked, still trying hard to keep his voice casual. "Did you - er - bother to ask him at all?"**

**He glanced up just in time to see them exchanging a look that told him he was behaving just as they had feared he would. It did nothing to improve his temper.**

"This is like a completely different Harry." Remus said a little appalled. Everyone nodded.

**"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," said Ron. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted."**

**"He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."**

"Sir, why are you not telling him, he has a right too know more than the Order," Lily asked but she just got a shrug for an answer, which didn't satisfy her.

**Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, "I thought that, too. But he didn't want you to know anything."**

**"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted," said Harry, watching their expressions.**

**"Don't be thick," said Ron, looking highly disconcerted.**

**"Or that I can't take care of myself."**

**"Of course he doesn't think that!" said Hermione anxiously.**

**"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" said Harry, the words tumbling over one another in a rush, his voice growing louder with every word. "How come you two are allowed to know everything that's going on?"**

"I of course trust Harry a lot, and I know he can take care of himself. So I really don't know why I'm leaving him out. Unless …" he trailed off but he was thinking about another chapter, the one where he found out about the Prophecy. He knew why Harry was acting like this; he was nodding not noticing the looks he got. But he just continued to read.

**"We're not!" Ron interrupted. "Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young -"**

**But before he knew it, Harry was shouting.**

**"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT - WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"**

"Wow." James sighed wide-eyed. Harry didn't seem like the type to boast. He had never heard him like this, "What has got in to him"

Dumbledore sighed "Don't blame Harry, this is the year Voldemort has started to get into his mind, he's most likely very moody and angry that year, it's like half of him is Voldemort. But of course after this year he learns how to make him only like Voldemort in those visions, he learns how to stop Voldemorts emotions affecting him." When he finished everyone looked shocked and some actually had these mouth open. But Lily looked relieved that this wasn't Harry's own self doing this, even though she hated the fact Voldemort is part of Harry.

**Every bitter and resentful thought Harry had had in the past month was pouring out of him: his frustration at the lack of news, the hurt that they had all been together without him, his fury at being followed and not told about it - all the feelings he was half-ashamed of finally burst their boundaries. **

"See what I mean, he said 'half-ashamed of" meaning, his proper self is ashamed but Voldemort's self isn't." everyone was a little too shocked to say anything but they nodded.

**Hedwig took fright at the noise and soared off to the top of the wardrobe again; Pigwidgeon twittered in alarm and zoomed even faster around their heads.**

**"WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"**

**Ron was standing there with his mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, while Hermione looked on the verge of tears.**

_They are stunned too, this is just not Harry_ they sighed.

**"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"**

**"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did -" Hermione began.**

**"CAN'T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR–"**

**"Well, he did -"**

**"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON -"**

"That's rough." Sirius muttered to himself.

**"We wanted to -"**

**"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER -"**

**"No, honest -"**

**"Harry we're really sorry!" said Hermione desperately, her eyes now sparkling with tears. "You're absolutely right, Harry - I'd be furious if it was me!"**

Lily was getting a little angry, she knew it wasn't fully him but that didn't mean he didn't say them things "He made her cry."

**Harry glared at her, still breathing deeply, then turned away from them again, pacing up and down. Hedwig hooted glumly from the top of the wardrobe. There was a long pause, broken only by the mournful creak of the floorboards below Harry's feet.**

**"What is this place, anyway?" he shot at Ron and Hermione.**

**"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," said Ron at once.**

**"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix -?"**

**"It's a secret society," said Hermione quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."**

A lot of people said "Us" at the same time and then everyone laughed a little.

**"Who's in it?" said Harry, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.**

**"Quite a few people -"**

**''We've met about twenty of them," said Ron, "but we think there are more."**

"Yeah, there's more."

**Harry glared at them. "Well?" he demanded, looking from one to the other. **

**"Er," said Ron.**

"Exactly Ron." Sirius agreed, he didn't know what Harry was talking about.

**"Well what?"**

**"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously, and both Ron and Hermione winced. **

Most people were shaking their heads, either at the way Harry was acting or because they winced at Voldemort's name.

**"What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"**

**"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings," said Hermione nervously. "So we don't know the details - but we've got a general idea," she added hastily, seeing the look on Harry's face. **

"Again, I think they should be allowed in." Alice told the table.

**"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," said Ron. "They're really useful."**

Sirius and James shared a look. "They invented them?" James smirked while the others just smiled. Minerva was wondering how bad these two really were, she wasn't looking forward to finding out.

**"Extendable -?"**

**"Ears, yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realised what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know –"**

"Yeah, that's handy, even though, it doesn't work." Frank added

**"Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order –" said Hermione. **

**"And some of them are standing guard over something, ' said Ron. "They're always talking about guard duty."**

**"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically. **

**"Oh, yeah," said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension. Harry snorted. **

A few people laughed, that was so obvious.

**He walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at Ron and Hermione. "So, what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" he demanded. "You said you'd been busy."**

Sirius couldn't help himself "Ohh" but he was mostly annoying but the younger people laughed a little.

**"We have," said Hermione quickly. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo –"**

"It's dangerous for kids to clean that house, I'm telling you … something will happen." Sirius nodded confidently.

**With two loud cracks, Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers, had materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room. **

James and Sirius shared a look while Remus chuckled. He remembered them two doing that 24/7 when they were finally able too.

**Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe. "Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as** **Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter.**

"Ron's taller than his older brothers?" Sirius pondered "No wonder he's taller than Harry." He finished with a smirk at James who just glared.

** "Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones." **

**"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."**

Nearly everyone was laughing, expect of course Minerva but she smiling.

"I love these twins." James gasped and everyone nodded. Arthur was chuckling at his sons, they sounded like nice boys even if they caused riots. Molly knew how to deal with pranksters, as she grew up with her twin brothers, well she hoped she knew how to deal with them.

**"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily. **

**"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-coloured string. **

"What is that?" Molly asked suspiciously. No one answered even James and Sirius didn't know.

**"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," said Ron.**

**"Time is Galleons, little brother," said Fred. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, and held up the string which Harry now saw was trailing out on to the landing. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."**

"Oh, so that's Extendable Ears." Sirius said as in the most knowing voice possible some people raised eyebrows

"Yes, Sirius. We guessed that" Remus added but Sirius just waved him down.

**"You want to be careful," said Ron, staring at the Ear, "if Mum sees one of them again"**

**"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred. **

"Hm" Molly muttered a little annoyed at her sons going against her rules.

**The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared. "Oh, hello, Harry!" said Ron's younger sister, Ginny, brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."**

"Did you hear that?" Sirius laughed "He's still only 'Ron's younger sister'" everyone giggled or chuckled with him.

"I wonder when they got together." Lily giggled.

**Turning to Fred and George, she said, "It's no-go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."**

"She sounds a little bit of a prankster, don't you think?" Dorcas laughed

"They all sound like prankster's too me" Minerva said sternly. She was the one who had to deal with them in the end.

**"How d'you know?' said George, looking crestfallen. **

**"Tonks told me how to find out," said Ginny. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."**

Sirius burst out laugh "Oh, Dora." Everyone else was shaking their heads with fond smiles.

**Fred heaved a deep sigh. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."**

"So Snape is in the building." Sirius sighed in disgust. How could he be in the same room as him? None of them had heard Snape talk yet but it didn't sound like he had changed much from the way people described him and Harry's thoughts about him, plus he was now a death eaters and killed Dumbledore.

** "Snape!" said Harry quickly. "Is he here?"**

**"Yeah," said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. "Giving a report. Top secret."**

"I wonder what." Sirius muttered darkly, but he actually did want to know, so did everyone else.

**"Git," said Fred idly. **

"I agree" Sirius laughed, James chuckled but never said anything, he knew how upset Lily was, even if she didn't show it.

"Fred." Molly scolded.

**"He's on our side now," said Hermione reprovingly. **

"Not" a lot of people muttered annoyed.

"I really want to know how he even convinced us, he was on our side?" Marlene asked Dumbledore. But he had no idea.

**Ron snorted. "Doesn't stop him being a git.**

Sirius started laughing again. And again "Ron." Molly scolded.

**The way he looks at us when he sees us."**

**"Bill doesn't like him, either," said Ginny, as though that settled the matter. **

Molly smiled "She must look up to her eldest brother." Everyone nodded, that sound about right.

**Harry was not sure his anger had abated yet; but his thirst for information was now overcoming his urge to keep shouting. He sank on to the bed opposite the others. **

**"Is Bill here?" he asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt?"**

"Why, did he have to be so far away." Molly moaned, she liked her children to be close to her.

**"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order, "said Fred. "He says he misses the tombs, but" he smirked, '"there are compensations."**

A few men looked interested and close to saying something but the woman just rolled their eyes.

**"What d'you mean?"**

**"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George. **

Molly clapped her hands together excited, "This is two years before the wedding, this must be the when they got together."

Everyone laughed a little at that. Knowing that they would get married was a little strange.

**"She's got a job at Gringotts to eempwve 'er Eeenglish –"**

**"And Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," sniggered Fred. **

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows "Yeah, that's it." A lot of people laughed but Molly cooed.

**"Charlie's in the Order, too," said George, "but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."**

"Why so far away." Molly moaned again to Arthur who just sighed and patted his wife's arm.

**"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked. The last he had heard, the third Weasley brother was working in the Department of International Magical Co-operation at the Ministry of Magic. **

Molly smiled, it was nice to hear about what her son was working as.

**At Harry's words, all the Weasleys and Hermione exchanged darkly significant looks.**

A lot of people looked more interested, maybe this was to show them what had happened with the family.

**"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad," Ron told Harry in a tense voice.**

**"Why not?"**

**"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said. **

Molly and Arthur tensed,_What has happened Percy?_ They weren't sure they wanted to know how, it must be really bad.

**"It's been awful," said Ginny sadly.**

**"I think we're well shot of him," said George, with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.**

Molly looked like she was about to start crying, she didn't want to lose any of her children.

**"What's happened?" Harry said.**

**"Percy and Dad had a row," said Fred. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts."**

Arthur sighed faintly, he wasn't the shouting type unless something really got out of hand.

**"It was the first week back after term ended," said Ron. "We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted."**

**"You're kidding?" said Harry. Though he knew perfectly well that Percy was highly ambitious, Harry's impression was that Percy had not made a great success of his first job at the Ministry of Magic. Percy had committed the fairly large oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by Lord Voldemort **

"Well, it's sort of difficult to tell when someone's controlled by him." Frank point out.

**(not that the Ministry had believed it - they all thought Mr Crouch had gone mad). **

"So his boss was Barty Crouch" Dumbledore muttered to himself. He remembered it getting mentioned he died, but he didn't know he was controlled.

**"Yeah, we were all surprised, " said George, "because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realised Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain."**

**"So how come they promoted him?"**

**"That's exactly what we wondered," said Ron, who seemed very keen to keep normal conversation going now that Harry had stopped yelling. **

**"He came home really pleased with himself - even more pleased than usual, if you can imagine that - and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts: Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."**

**"Only Dad wasn't," said Fred grimly. **

Arthur was surprised by that. So it was his fault? "Why?" everyone else was curious. They knew Arthur would always be supportive of his kids.

**"Why not?" said Harry. **

**"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore," said George.**

**"Dumbledore's name is mud with the Ministry these days, see," said Fred. "They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back."**

Most started shaking their heads. "Is that how he got so powerful, they brought that on themselves," Lily yelled. Everyone was outraged. That was the Ministry's own fault, now a lot of people need to suffer.

**"Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks," said George. "Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession."**

Arthur smiled, it was nice to know he still had his obsession, and that his children didn't think anything bad about it, he didn't care what Fudge has to say about it.

**"But what's that got to do with Percy?' asked Harry, contused. **

**"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family - and Dumbledore." **

A lot of people huffed at that, "You're in the right Arthur. Don't worry." Molly patted her husband's arm but she was still upset about not having her son there.

**Harry let out a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."**

No one knew what that meant but they though Percy might not have been as fun-loving as the rest of the family.

**Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way. "He went completely berserk. He said - well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been - you know - not had a lot of money, I mean –"**

Molly and Arthur went bright red while everyone made noises of outrage, how dare that boy say that too his own father. Arthur would give his son's everything if he had it, and no one else was complaining about it.

"Stupid, Ministry loving idiot." Sirius called out, but stopped and turned to the Weasley parent's "Sorry, Molly, Arthur but you two are the best people ever, he doesn't have any right to say that." The waved away his apology but they couldn't feel bad at their son, he was their son after all.

**"What?" said Harry in disbelief, as Ginny made a noise like an angry cat. **

**"I know," said Ron in a low voice. "And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he - Percy - knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to be come traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family any more. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."**

Everyone just sat there in disbelief, Molly was silently crying, and everyone else was riled up with anger. That boy didn't have any right to say anything and his loyalty should lay with his family. They bet he was regretting it now.

**Harry swore under his breath. He had always liked Percy least of Ron's brothers, but he had never imagined he would say such things to Mr Weasley.**

A lot of people grimaced, it appeared Percy wasn't as nice as the rest of the family.

**"Mum's been in a right state," said Ron dully. "You know - crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work- ignores him, I's'pose."**

They all nodded remembering reading about Arthur and Percy in the lift at the Ministry.

**"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," said Harry slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof."**

**"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," said Ron, shooting Harry a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and; I dunno he didn't think it was good enough."**

Arthur and Molly were not speaking, they couldn't believe this was their son. He was at Molly's mum's right now.

**"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," said Hermione tartly, and the others all nodded.**

"What's the Prophet done now." Lily sighed, all the anger and frustration was tiring her.

**"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.**

**"Haven't - haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet!" Hermione asked nervously. **

**"Yeah, I have!" said Harry. **

**"Have you - er - been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asked, still more anxiously. **

Lily closed her eyes. "I don't even want to know now." Most nodded massaging their temple.

"**Not cover to cover," said Harry defensively. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it?" **

**The others flinched at the sound of the name. Hermione hurried on, "Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they - um - they mention you a couple of times a week."**

"I am not liking the sound of this," Sirius said slowly.

**"But I'd have seen –"**

**"Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," said Hermione, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke."**

James clenched his fists. "Now, why did it even have to get on to this"

**"What d'you -?"**

**"It's quite nasty, actually, ' said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."**

"Of course, Rita" Elphias Doge said in a voice that held no surprise. He was still angry at her for what she wrote about Dumbledore.

**"But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?"**

**"Oh, no, she's kept her promise - not that she's got any choice," Hermione added with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."**

"What did Hermione do?" Emmeline asked a little confused

"I don't know, but I hope it was good." Sirius smirked.

**"Which is what?" said Harry impatiently.**

**"OK, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"**

**"Yeah," said Harry, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeter's stories about him in a hurry.**

Lily huffed.

**"Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something," said Hermione, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. **

Everyone looked gob smacked. Harry was everything but them things. But then again, this was people trying to discredit him.

**"They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like, 'A tale worthy of Harry Potter', and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's, 'Let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next' –"**

No one commented but a lot of people were just sitting there like goldfish. Until –

"That is unbelievable" Alice yelled.

**"I don't want anyone to worship –" Harry began hotly. **

**"I know you don't," said Hermione quickly, looking frightened. "I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going."**

"That is like the complete opposite of what he's actually doing, he's trying to keep them safe."

"**I didn't ask - I didn't want - Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry spluttered.**

A few people flinched at the reminder.

"**I got famous because** **he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it'd never –"**

"Even teenage James wouldn't want to be famous because of that." Sirius said trying to lighten the mood, it worked for everyone who knew James when he was a teenager, including Minerva, and Lily. James glared at him half-heartily.

"**We know, Harry," said Ginny earnestly. **

**"And of course, they didn't report a word about the Dementors attacking you," said Hermione. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off. We think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town - I mean, if you're expelled, obviously," she went on hastily. "You really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you." **

"I can't believe they are doing this to him." Lily muttered quietly. A lot of other people who knew how the laws worked were also shocked.

**They were back on the hearing and Harry did not want to think about that. He cast around for another change of subject, but was saved the necessity of finding one by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. **

**"Uh oh." Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway. **

"They know how to make a getaway." Sirius laughed a little, trying to forget what had been said about Harry.

Molly huffed. "Well they have years of practice." Everyone nodded. _yes, that's true._

**"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"**

**"Crookshanks," said Ginny unblusingly. "He loves playing with them." **

**"Oh," said Mrs Weasley, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please." **

Everyone turned round to Molly shocked. "You didn't think that gave it away?" Sirius asked shocked.

Molly blushed "I don't know what my future self is thinking."

Sirius only smirked because of this "Yup." Everyone was confused "This is definitely the girl for Harry." A lot of people laughed.

**Ginny grimaced at the others and followed her mother out of the room, leaving Harry alone with Ron and Hermione. Both of them were watching him apprehensively, as though they feared he would start shouting again now that everyone else had gone. The sight of them looking so nervous made him feel slightly ashamed.**

A lot of people sighed. Harry didn't know what had happened with him, or what was happening with him.

**"Look," he muttered, but Ron shook his head, and Hermione said quietly, "We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore –"**

**"Yeah, I know, " said Harry shortly. He cast around for a topic that didn't involve his headmaster, because the very thought of Dumbledore made Harry's insides burn with anger again. **

"Now, that's what he meant when he said that when Dumbledore was mentioned or saw him, he had a flicker of Voldemort in him." Remus nodded.

**"Who's Kreacher?" he asked. **

**"The house-elf who lives here," said Ron. "Nutter. Never met one like him."**

A few people frowned, knowing what Kreacher had gone though.

**Hermione frowned at Ron. '"He's not a nutter, Ron."**

**"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother," said Ron irritably. "Is that normal, Hermione?"**

A few who didn't think he was being serious laughed, but Sirius and his group of friends knew he was being deadly serious.

**"Well - well, if he is a bit strange, it's not his fault." **

Frank stopped "Wait, was he being serious?" he asked Sirius who nodded unaffected by it.

**Ron rolled his eyes at Harry. "Hermione still hasn't given up on SPEW –"**

Lily looked uncertain - a look you didn't see often – at the mention of S.P.E.W "What's that?" No one answered. No one had ever heard of it.

**"It's not SPEW!" said Hermione heatedly. "It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. And it's not just me; Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too."**

"I have never heard of that?" Lily shook her head. No one else had either.

**"Yeah, yeah," said Ron. "C'mon, I'm starving." **

**He led the** **way out of the door and on to the landing, but before they could descend the stairs –**

**"Hold it!" Ron breathed, flinging out an arm to stop Harry and Hermione walking** **any further. "They're still in the hall; we might be able to hear something." **

**The three of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all of Harry's guard. **

Lily mouthed "Harry's guard" to James but he just shook his head.

**They were whispering excitedly together. In the very centre of the group Harry saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of his least favourite teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Snape.**

Sirius chuckled a little, while others glared he tried to keep a straight face, but he exchanged an amused look with James, which Remus caught and sighed. They would never change.

** Harry leant further over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix.**

"Us too." Arthur asked suspiciously. He was thinking it was to do with spying.

**A thin piece of flesh-coloured string descended in front of Harry's eyes. Looking up, he saw Fred and George on the landing above, cautiously lowering the Extendable Ear towards the dark knot of people below.**

Molly muttered something about "when she catches them."

** A moment later, however, they all began to move towards the front door and out of sight. **

**"Dammit," Harry heard Fred whisper, as he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again. **

**They heard the front door open, then close. **

**"Snape never eats here, ' Ron told Harry quietly. "Thank God. C'mon." **

"Yeah, I mean, he'd put you off your dinner." Sirius commented, unaffected with the looks he got.

**"And don't forget to keep your voice down in the hall, Harry," Hermione whispered. **

**As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, they saw Lupin, Mrs Weasley and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left. **

**"We're eating down in the kitchen," Mrs Weasley whispered, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door here –" **

**CRASH. **

**"Tonks!" cried Mrs Weasley in exasperation, turning to look behind her. **

"You shouted that before you even turned around" Sirius gasped laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. It was so like

**"I'm sorry!" wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor.**

A few people started chuckling, and Sirius started laughing harder, Remus started laughing as well because he had seen Tonk's trip over everything too.

** "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over –"But the rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech. **

**The moth-eaten velvet curtains Harry had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. For a split second, Harry thought he was looking through a window, a window behind which an old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she were being tortured - then he realised it was simply a life-size portrait, but the most realistic, and the most unpleasant, he had ever seen in his life. The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed; and all along the hall behind them, the other portraits awoke and began to yell, too, so that Harry actually screwed up his eyes at the noise and clapped his hands over his ears. **

"Well, my mother doesn't change," Sirius sighed after he finally stopped laughing

Lily looked disgusted. "That's your mother." She said very slowly. Everyone else looked at Sirius too, they knew his mother was a very unpleasant pure-blood, but she seems much much worse than more say.

He nodded "Yeah, now can you see why I ran away." She just nodded in return.

**Lupin and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close and she screeched louder than ever, brandishing clawed hands as though trying to tear at their faces. "Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, be gone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers –"**

"Shut up, mother." Sirius sighed.

**Tonks apologised over and over again, dragging the huge, heavy troll's leg back off the floor; Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, stunning all the other portraits with her wand; and a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing Harry. "Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" he roared, seizing the curtain Mrs Weasley had abandoned. **

"I think that's me." Sirius smiled. "I am so glad I said that to her, mind you, I have said worse." He smirked at the end, no one dared asked what, but it was nice to hear Sirius in the story.

**The old woman's face blanched. "Yoooou!" she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!" **

Sirius laughed "She can come up with better insult than that, old age and death must have damaged her brain."

Everyone looked shocked that a mother said that.

**"I said - shut - UP!" roared the man, and with a stupendous effort he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again. The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence fell.**

**Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Harry's godfather Sirius turned to face him. "Hello, Harry," he said grimly, "I see you've met my mother."**

"Nice way to introduce them Padfoot." James laughed.

Sirius was laughing along with him "I do my best Prongs."

* * *

_If you have any questions, review and i'll answer them, next update._


	23. Goblin's Revenge

_All the bold writing belongs to JK Rowling. Character's are all her's. None of it mine, expect the normal writing._

* * *

"I'll get back to the original book." Dumbledore cleared his throat and everyone listened.

**Early next morning, before the other two were awake, Harry left the tent to search the woods around them for the oldest, most gnarled, and resilient-looking tree he could find. There in its shadows he buried Mad-Eye Moody's eye and marked the spot by gouging a small cross in the bark with his wand. It was not much, but Harry felt that Mad-Eye would have much preferred this to being stuck on Dolores Umbridge's door. **

"I guess so." Moody grunted

**Then he returned to the tent to wait for the others to wake, and discuss what they were going to do next.**

**Harry and Hermione felt that it was best not to stay anywhere too long, and Ron agreed, with the sole proviso that their next move took them within reach of a bacon sandwich. Hermione therefore removed the enchantments she had placed around the clearing, while Harry and Ron obliterated all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show they had camped there. Then they Disapparated to the outskirts of a small market town.**

"Good … they are covering up their tracks." Moody praised again, but mostly everyone was ignoring him now.

**Once they had pitched the tent in the shelter of a small copse of trees and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments. Harry ventured out under the Invisibility Cloak to find sustenance. This, however, did not go as planned. He had barely entered the town when an unnatural chill, a descending mist, and a sudden darkening of the skies made him freeze where he stood.**

Everyone froze. Dementors. Some people closed their eyes. Dementors in a muggle village.

**"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" protested Ron, when Harry arrived back at the tent empty handed, out of breath, and mouthing the single word, dementors.**

**"I couldn't... make one." he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't... come."**

"What?" Sirius said confused and alarmed. "I thought he had been able to do it since he was thirteen?" Lily was looking even more alarmed.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful "Hm." He couldn't think why Harry would have trouble now.

**Their expressions of consternation and disappointment made Harry feel ashamed. It had been a nightmarish experience, seeing the dementors gliding out of the must in the distance and realizing, as the paralyzing cold choked his lungs and a distant screaming filled his ears, that he was not going to be able to protect himself. It had taken all Harry's willpower to uproot himself from the spot and run, leaving the eyeless dementors to glide amongst the Muggles who might not be able to see them, but would assuredly feel the despair they cast wherever they went.**

"That is terrible. They can't see them, but they are standing right next to them." Lily mumbled. Everyone agreed, that was a terrible thought, the poor muggles.

**"So we still haven't got any food."**

**"Shut up, Ron," snapped Hermione. "Harry, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday!"**

"See" Sirius pointed out, why couldn't Harry do something he did the day before.

**"I don't know."**

**He sat low in one of Perkins's old armchairs, feeling more humiliated by the moment. He was afraid that something had gone wrong inside him. Yesterday seemed a long time ago: Today he might have been thirteen years old again, the only one who collapsed on the Hogwarts Express.**

"Why would he collapse on the Hogwarts Express? Why is he even thinking about that, what has it got to do with Dementors?" Sirius asked clearly really confused.

"I have an idea, but you won't like it." Remus muttered darkly. Some nodded in understanding but most were clearly confused.

**Ron kicked a chair leg.**

**"What?" he snarled at Hermione. "I'm starving! All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!"**

Sirius looked sympathetic, he didn't think he could survive without food.

**"You go and fight your way through the dementors, then," said Harry, stung.**

**"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"**

**"That's convenient."**

"Don't argue boys." Arthur said sternly, causing a few to look at him, and Lily to smile his way.

**"And what's that supposed to -?"**

**"Of course!" cried Hermione, clapping a hand to her forehead and startling both of them into silence. "Harry, give me the locket! Come on," she said impatiently, clicking her fingers at him when he did not react, "the Horcrux, Harry, you're still wearing it!"**

"Oh" a lot of people muttered, most people didn't get it but never said anything.

"I knew it wasn't safe to wear." Frank told Alice who nodded.

**She held out her hands, and Harry lifted the golden chain over his head. The moment it parted contact with Harry's skin he felt oddly light. He had not even realized that he was clammy or that there was a heavy weight pressing on his stomach until both sensations lifted.**

Lily sighed in relief, at least they knew what was causing the block in this happy thoughts and also why he felt so snappy.

**"Better?" asked Hermione.**

**"Yeah, loads better!"**

James looked thoughtful "So, the Horcrux was controlling him sort of, like it was affecting his thoughts ect?"

Sirius rolled his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world even though he had only just figured it out a few minutes before James.

**"Harry," she said, crouching down in front of him and using the kind of voice he associated with visiting the very sick, "you don't think you've been possessed, do you?"**

"Please, no" James nearly pleaded.

"He's not Mr. Potter." Minerva assured him.

**"What? No!" he said defensively, "I remember everything we've done while I've be wearing it. I wouldn't know what I'd done if I'd been possessed, would I? Ginny told me there were times when she couldn't remember anything."**

Molly and Arthur looked pained at the reminder of their daughter being possessed by Voldemort.

**"Hmm," said Hermione, looking down at the heavy locket. "Well, maybe we ought not to wear it. We can just keep it in the tent."**

**"We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around," Harry stated firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen -"**

"Just keep it in a bag of something?" Marlene suggested and everyone agreed.

**"Oh, all right, all right," said Hermione, and she placed it around her own neck and tucked it out of sight down the front of her shirt. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on too long."**

"I still have a bad feeling at it." Dorcas mumbled to Dedalus who nodded.

**"Great," said Ron irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"**

**"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it," said Hermione with half a glance at Harry. "There's no point staying where we know dementors are swooping around."**

**In the end they settled down for the night in a far flung field belonging to a lonely farm, from which they had managed to obtain eggs and bread.**

Sirius sighed longingly for food.

**"It's not stealing, is it?" asked Hermione in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs on toast. "Not if I left some money under the chicken co?"**

**Ron rolled his eyes and said, with his cheeks bulging, "Er-my-nee, 'oo worry 'oo much. 'Elax!"**

Sirius chuckled, he really little Ron. James and Remus chuckled because Ron reminded them of Sirius.

**And, indeed, it was much easier to relax when they were comfortably well fed. The argument about the dementors was forgotten in laughter that night, and Harry felt cheerful, even hopeful, as he took the first of the three night watches.**

**This was their first encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits, an empty one, bickering and gloom. Harry was least surprised by this, because he had suffered periods of near starvation at the Dursleys'.**

James closed his eyes with a pained expression "I so wish I could really hurt them"

Lily half-glared at him because that was still her sister, even though at the moment she really wanted to hurt her too. Her and her whale of a husband.

** Hermione bore up reasonably well on those nights when they managed to scavenge nothing but berries or stale biscuits, her temper perhaps a little shorter than usual and her silences dour. Ron, however, had always been used to three delicious meals a day, courtesy of his mother or of the Hogwarts house-elves, and hunger made him both unreasonable and irascible. Whenever lack of food coincided with Ron's turn to wear the Horcrux, he became downright unpleasant.**

Sirius cringed "Yeah, I can imagine."

Molly was thinking that maybe she pampered Ron with too much food. But Arthur just told her it wasn't her fault.

**"So where next?" was his constant refrain. He did not seem to have any ideas himself, but expected Harry and Hermione to come up with plans while he sat and brooded over the low food supplies. Accordingly Harry and Hermione spent fruitless hours trying to decide where they might find the other Horcruxes, and how to destroy the one they already got, their conversations becoming increasingly repetitive as they got no new information.**

"That would get irritating." Aberforth muttered to himself

"Yeah, it would." Moody grunted "Just like how irritating it is when people keep interrupting," but no one took notice but a few lips twitched.

**As Dumbledore had told Harry that he believed Voldemort had hidden the Horcruxes in places important to him, they kept reciting, in a sort of dreary litany, those locations they knew that Voldemort had lived or visited. The orphanage where he had been born and raised.**

"He was in a muggle orphanage?" Lily blinked. No knowing how to cope with a baby Voldemort. A lot of people looked uncertain too.

**Hogwarts, where he had been educated; Borgin and Burks, where he had worked after completing school; then Albania, where he had spent his years of exile: These formed the basis of their speculations.**

**"Yeah, let's go to Albania. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon to search an entire country," said Ron sarcastically.**

Sirius sniggered. A few other people chuckled too.

**"There can't be anything there. He'd already made five of his Horcruxes before he went into exile, and Dumbledore was certain the snake is the sixth," said Hermione. "We know the snake's not in Albania, it's usually with Vol –**

**"Didn't I ask you to stop say that?"**

**"Fine! The snake is usually with You-Know-Who - happy?"**

"Why is he all of a sudden, strange when it come to the name?" James asked suspiciously.

**"Not particularly."**

**"I can't see him hiding anything at Borgin and Burkes." said Harry, who had made this point many times before, but said it again simply to break the nasty silence. "Borgin and Burke were experts at Dark objects, they would've recognized a Horcrux straightaway."**

"He's right." Moody told the group as if waiting for one to argue with him

"I thought you said interruption were irritation?" Alice smirked but was ignored by him.

**Ron yawned pointedly. Repressing a strong urge to throw something at him, Harry plowed on, "I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts."**

Sirius signed, why was Ron acting like that. Also there wouldn't be something at Hogwarts because Dumbledore would find it, although Dumbledore was now thinking Harry would be right, but that was unknown to Sirius.

**Hermione sighed.**

**"But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry!"**

"Yeah," Sirius said confidently.

At the same time though Dumbledore said "No" causing some to look at him shocked and confused, including Sirius.

**Harry repeated the argument he kept bringing out in favor of this theory.**

**"Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwart's secrets. I'm telling you, if there was one place Vol -"**

**"Oi!"**

**"YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!" Harry shouted, goaded past endurance. "If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!"**

"That is really bugging me now, what is wrong with him and the name?" Emmeline asked. She had heard him say it a lot of times before.

**"Oh, come on," scoffed Ron. "His school?"**

Usually Sirius would raise an eyebrow or agree with Ron, but Hogwarts was important for him too.

**"Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special: it meant everything to him, and even after he left -"**

**"This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, right? Not you?" inquired Ron. **

"Ron." Molly yelled shocked, so were the rest of the group. Ron was Harry's best friend and that was a very insensitive thing to say to him. Lily looked him saddened at the thought that Hogwarts was Harry's first real home. She wished it was with her. Sirius was shocked that Ron would say that because it was like James saying that to him. James and Ron had similar home life's – expect the siblings – both their homes were full of love, while Harry and Sirius's weren't but Hogwarts was. So naturally they would think of Hogwarts as home.

**He was tugging at the chain of the Horcrux around his neck; Harry was visited by a desire to seize it and throttle him.**

A few nodded in understanding but that didn't mean they were less angry with Ron for saying that.

**"You told us that You-Know-Who asked Dumbledore to give him a job after he left," said Hermione.**

**"That's right," said Harry**

**"And Dumbledore thought he only wanted to come back to try and find something, probably another founder's object, to make into another Horcrux?"**

James held his hand up. "Wait, Voldemort wanted a job?"

"Yes, Tom Riddle, who had just adopted the title 'Voldemort' asked for me to give the job for Defense Against The Dark Arts, and ever since I refused him, not one Professor has kept the job for more than a year." Dumbledore ended sadly

"Should have known he was the one to start that curse." Sirius muttered darkly.

**"Yeah," said Harry.**

**"But he didn't get the job, did he?" said Hermione. "So he never got the chance to find a founder's object there and hide it in the school!"**

Dumbledore stopped and said "Just because he never got the job doesn't mean that he never found a founder's object and hide it in the school. I trust young Harry's instincts" No one argued but they did look doubtful, expect Moody, he thought one was there too.

**"Okay, then," said Harry, defeated. "Forget Hogwarts.**

**Without any other leads, they traveled into London and, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, searching for the orphanage in which Voldemort had been raised. Hermione stole into a library and discovered from their records that the place had been demolished many years before. They visited its site and found a tower block of offices.**

"Unhelpful" Sirius rolled his eyes.

**"We could try digging in to foundations?" Hermione suggested halfheartedly.**

**"He wouldn't have hidden a Horcrux here," Harry said. He had known it all along. The orphanage had been the place Voldemort had been determined to escape; he would never have hidden a part of his soul there. **

Mostly everyone agreed with that now.

**Dumbledore had shown Harry that Voldemort sought grandeur or mystique in his hiding places; this dismal gray corner of London was as far removed as you could imagine from Hogwarts or the Ministry or a building like Gringotts, the Wizarding banks, with its gilded doors and marble floors.**

Lily moaned, a few people looked at her but she didn't say anything. No even Dumbledore knew what she was thinking but. She was almost positive that there was one at Hogwarts, and there was one at the Ministry even if it wasn't supposed to be there intentionally. The only other big magical place left was Gringotts, she was almost certain one was there.

**Even without any new idea, they continued to move through the countryside, pitching the tent in a different place each night for security. Every morning they made sure that they had removed all clues to their presence, then set off to find another lonely and secluded spot, traveling by Apparition to more woods, to the shadowy crevices of cliffs, to purple moors, gorse-covered mountainsides, and once a sheltered and pebbly cove. Every twelve hours or so they passed the Horcrux between them as though they were playing some perverse, slow-motion game of pass-the-parcel, where they dreaded the music stopping because the reward was twelve hours of increased fear and anxiety.**

A lot of people looked anxious. _Why don't you just put it in a bag or something? _They moaned in their heads.

**Harry's scar kept prickling. It happened most often, he noticed, when he was wearing the Horcrux. Sometimes he could not stop himself reacting to the pain.**

Lily looked extra worried at the mention of the scar.

**"What? What did you see?" demanded Ron, whenever he noticed Harry wince.**

**"A face," muttered Harry, every time. "The same face. The thief who stole from Gregorovitch."**

"He's obsessed." Sirius announced trying to lighten the mood, it worked for everyone but Aberforth and Albus, who both knew who that, was. Finally Sirius couldn't take it anymore. "Aberforth, how do you know who that person is?"

Aberforth looked like he wouldn't answer but then with a twitch of his lips, as if the answer could do nothing but satisfy him he answered "Ask Albus."

When he asked Albus he got the simple answer of "I used to know him." And he didn't expand the answer.

**And Ron would turn away, making no effort to hide his disappointment. Harry knew that Ron was hoping to bear news of his family or the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, but after all, he, Harry, was not a television aerial; he could only see what Voldemort was thinking at the time, not tune in to whatever took his fancy. Apparently Voldemort was dwelling endlessly on the unknown youth with the gleeful face, whose name and whereabouts, Harry felt sure, Voldemort knew no better than he did. As Harry's scar continued to burn and the merry, blond-haired boy swam tantalizingly in his memory, he learned to suppress any sign of pain or discomfort, for the other two showed nothing but impatience at the mention of the thief. **

"Could you two not just tell us who he is?" Sirius asked impatiently

He got glared at off Aberforth but the other Dumbledore tried to understand "I'm sure you'll find out."

**He could not entirely blame them, when they were so desperate for a lead on the Horcruxes.**

**As the days stretched into weeks, Harry began to suspect that Ron and Hermione were having conversations without, and about, him. **

A lot of people frowned, that wasn't nice and Harry was their friends; best friend. But most thought he was being paranoid.

**Several times they stopped talking abruptly when Harry entered the tent, and twice he came accidentally upon them, huddled a little distance away, heads together and talking fast; both times they fell silent when they realized he was approaching them and hastened to appear busy collecting wood or water.**

"Well, that's suspicious." Sirius whispered to himself, barely able to hear the words himself.

**Harry could not help wondering whether they had only agreed to come on what now felt like a pointless and rambling journey because they thought he had some secret plan that they would learn in due course. Ron was making no effort to hide his bad mood, and Harry was starting to fear that Hermione too was disappointed by his poor leadership. In desperation he tried to think of further Horcrux locations, but the only one that continued to occur to him was Hogwarts, and as neither of the others thought this at all likely, he stopped suggesting it.**

"They should listen to him." Dorcas announced. Most nodded.

**Autumn rolled over the countryside as they moved through it. **

"They had been gone for a long time, I must be going crazy with worry." Molly added biting her lip. Yeah, everyone agreed to that. They knew that's what Molly was like.

**They were now pitching the tent on mulches of fallen leaves. Natural mists joined those cast by the dementors; wind and rain added to their troubles. The fact that Hermione was getting better at identifying edible fungi could not altogether compensate for their continuing isolation, the lack of other people's company, or their total ignorance of what was going on in the war against Voldemort.**

A lot of people frowned. "That's not good, they need to know where he is, and what he's doing." Moody point out, mostly everyone agreed but they weren't going to give him the benefit.

**"My mother," said Ron one night, as they sat in the tent on a riverbank in Wales, "can make good food appear out of thin air."**

"No, I can't Ronald." Molly said sternly.

**He prodded moodily at the lumps of charred gray fish on his plate. Harry glanced automatically at Ron's neck and saw, as he has expected, the golden chain of the Horcrux glinting there. He managed to fight down the impulse to swear at Ron, whose attitude would, he knew, improve slightly when the time came to take off the locket.**

"I told you that locket should not get worn. It causes more arguments than it's worth." Frank announced.

"We know," Alice reminded him but he seemed unfazed.

**"Your mother can't produce food out of thin air," said Hermione. "no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigura -"**

**"Oh, speak English, can't you?" Ron said, prying a fish out from between his teeth.**

Molly again was very shocked at her son. "Ronald." She said sternly. She didn't care if he was wearing the locket or not, she was still mad at him.

**"It's impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you've already got some -"**

**"Well, don't bother increasing this, it's disgusting," said Ron.**

Arthur was shaking his head, it seems the locket was somehow affecting his youngest son more than Ron and Hermione.

**"Harry caught the fish and I did my best with it! I notice I'm always the one who ends up sorting out the food, because I'm a girl, I suppose!"**

**"No, it's because you're supposed to be the best at magic!" shot back Ron.**

"That's actually compliment." James said trying to make the best out of Ron's words, but Molly and Arthur still looked saddened and Molly looked a little angry at how their son was acting.

**Hermione jumped up and bits of roast pike slid off her tin plate onto the floor.**

**"You can do the cooking tomorrow, Ron, you can find the ingredients and try and charm them into something worth eating, and I'll sit here and pull faces and moan and you can see you -"**

**"Shut up!" said Harry, leaping to his feet and holding up both hands. "Shut up now!"**

Sirius couldn't help but snigger. A lot of other people looked amused as well.

**Hermione looked outraged.**

**"How can you side with him, he hardly ever does the cook -"**

"I know, dear." Molly whispered sympathetic to the girl.

**"Hermione, be quiet, I can hear someone!"**

Everyone just suddenly tensed. Who was it? Where the trio in danger? He didn't know what to say.

**He was listening hard, his hands still raised, warning them not to talk. Then, over the rush and gush of the dark river beside them, he heard voices again. He looked around at the Sneakoscope. It was not moving.**

"Good sign." Frank muttered to himself, only Alice and Emmeline heard him and they nodded.

**"You cast the Muffliato charm over us, right?" he whispered to Hermione.**

**"I did everything," she whispered back, "Muffliato, Muggle-Repelling and Disillusionment Charms, all of it. They shouldn't be able to hear or see us, whoever they are."**

Everyone nodded a little relieved, but they still didn't know who this was.

**Heavy scuffing and scraping noises, plus the sound of dislodged stones and twigs, told them that several people were clambering down the steep, wooded**

**slope that descended to the narrow bank where they had pitched the tent. They drew their wands, waiting. The enchantments they had cast around themselves ought to be sufficient, in the near total darkness, to shield them from the notice of Muggles and normal witches and wizards. If these were Death Eaters, then perhaps their defenses were about to be tested by Dark Magic for the first time.**

"Let's just hope they aren't Death Eater's Harry." James added slowly.

**The voices became louder but no more intelligible as the group of men reached the bank. Harry estimated that their owners were fewer than twenty feet away, but the cascading river made it impossible to tell for sure. Hermione snatched up the beaded bag and started to rummage; after a moment she drew out three Extendible Ears and threw one each to Harry and Ron, who hastily inserted the ends of the flesh-colored strings into their ears and fed the other ends out of the tent entrance.**

**Within seconds Harry heard a weary male voice.**

**"There ought to be a few salmon in here, or d'you reckon it's too early in the season? Accio Salmon!"**

Everyone looked confused, these people didn't look like a threat, they sounded like they were doing basically what Ron, Hermione and Harry were.

**There were several distinct splashes and then the slapping sounds of fish against flesh. Somebody grunted appreciatively. Harry pressed the Extendable ear deeper into his own; over the murmur of the river he could make out more voices, but they were not speaking English or any human language he had ever heard. It was a rough and unmelodious tongue, a string of rattling, guttural noises, and there seemed to be two speakers, one with a slightly lower, slower voice than the other.**

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. His first thought was Goblins? But why would they be there?

**A fire danced into life on the other side of the canvas, large shadows passed between tent and flames. The delicious smell of baking salmon wafted tantalizingly in their direction. Then came the clinking of cutlery on plates, and the first man spoke again.**

**"Here, Griphook, Gornuk."**

"Goblins?" Sirius asked confused.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, that would seem about right."

"But, Sir, why are they there?" Lily asked a little concerned, where things that bad that even that even creatures had to hide now. Dumbledore nodded as if to confirm her theory. She bit her lip.

**'Goblins' Hermione mouthed at Harry, who nodded.**

**"Thank you," said the goblins together in English.**

**"So, you three have been on the run how long?" asked a new, mellow, and pleasant voice; it was vaguely familiar to Harry, who pictured a round-bellied, cheerful-faced man.**

"Ted." Sirius nodded leaning forward looking concerned now, this was his cousin's husbands and his little cousin's father. He didn't feel like making a joke of Moony about it just now.

**"Six weeks... Seven... I forget," said the tired man. "Met up with Griphook in the first couple of days and joined forces with Gornuk not long after. Nice to have a bit of company." There was a pause, while knives scraped plates and tin mugs were picked up and replaced on the ground. "What made you leave, Ted?" continued the man.**

"Oh my Merlin, that war is terrible, and they are all counting of Harry to stop it." Then Marlene added sadly "I am actually thankful I died before this one." Some people looked at her funny but some nodded in understanding.

**"Knew they were coming for me," replied mellow-voiced Ted, and Harry suddenly knew who he was; Tonks's father. "Heard Death Eaters were in the area last week and decided I'd better run for it. Refused to register as a Muggle-born on principle, see, so I knew it was a matter of time, knew I'd have to leave in the end. My wife should be okay, she's pure-blood. And then I met Dean here, what, a few days ago, son?"**

Sirius sighed knowing how hard that must have been for Andy. And Dora would really need Remus's now. The thought made a small smile form, Remus who suddenly knew what Sirius was thinking of, rolled his eyes.

**"Yeah," said another voice, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at each other, silent but besides themselves with excitement, sure they recognized the voice of Dean Thomas, their fellow Gryffindor.**

A lot of people gasped, but most smiled. That's nice for them to hear.

**"Muggle-born, eh?" asked the first man.**

**"Not sure ," said Dean. "My dad left my mum when I was a kid. I've got no proof he was a wizard, though."**

Sirius let out a low whistle "Yeah, that would be hard in them times"

**There was silence for a while, except for the sounds of munching; then Ted spoke again.**

**"I've got to say, Dirk, I'm surprised to run into you. Pleased, but surprised. Word was that you'd been caught."**

**"I was," said Dirk. "I was halfway to Azkaban when I made a break for it. Stunned Dawlish, and nicked his broom. It was easier than you'd think; I don't reckon he's quite right at the moment. Might be Confunded. If so, I'd like to shake the hand of the witch or wizard who did it, probably saved my life."**

A few chuckled, it seems he made a nice break away.

**There was another pause in which the fire crackled and the river rushed on. The Ted said, "And where do you two fit in? I, er, had the impression the goblins were for You-Know-Who, on the whole."**

Some people looked a little more interested, they didn't know why Goblin's were on the run.

**"You had a false impression," said the higher-voiced of the goblins. "We take no sides. This is a wizards' war."**

Some frowned, that didn't make sense at all.

**"How come you're in hiding, then?"**

**"I deemed in prudent," said the deeper-voiced goblin. "Having refused what I considered an impertinent request, I could see that my person safety was in jeopardy."**

**"What did they ask you to do?" asked Ted.**

**"Duties ill-befitting the dignity of my race," replied the goblin, his voice rougher and less human as he said it. "I am not a house-elf."**

Some people rolled their eyes. Typical Goblin, thinking they are better than everyone.

**"What about you, Griphook?"**

**"Similar reasons," said the higher voiced goblin. "Gringotts is no longer under the sole control of my race. I recognize no Wizarding master."**

A lot of people gasped, they couldn't imagine Gringotts not run by Goblin's

"Tough break" Sirius muttered but got a few glares.

Minerva was looking worried, but she was thinking about Hogwarts, if everything was getting took over, how bad exactly was Hogwarts? She didn't even want to know.

**He added something under his breath in Gobbledegook, and Gornuk laughed.**

**"What's the joke?" asked Dean.**

**"He said," replied Dirk, "that there are things wizards don't recognize, either."**

**There was a short pause.**

"I don't get it." Frank said flatly. There had been a short pause in the room too. No one else got it either.

**"I don't get it," said Dean.**

A few chuckled at the similarity.

**"I had my small revenge before I left," said Griphook in English.**

Sirius smirked, he loved anyone who got 'revenge' on Death Eaters.

**"Good man - goblin, I should say," amended Ted hastily. "Didn't manage to lock a Death Eater up in one of the old high-security vaults, I suppose?"**

"Ted, always did have a sense of humor." Sirius laughed, Remus, James and Lily laughed too, they had met Ted when babysitting Dora.

**"If I had, the sword would not have helped him break out," replied Griphook. Gornuk laughed again and even Dirk gave a dry chuckle.**

**"Dean and I are still missing something here," said Ted.**

A lot of people nodded _Us too._

**"So is Severus Snape, though he does not know it," said Griphook, and the two goblins roared with malicious laughter. **

"Oh, now I'm really interested." Sirius laughed again. Lily giggled a little, she was interested too now. And apparently so was have the table.

**Inside the tent Harry's breathing was shallow with excitement: He and Hermione stared at each other, listening as hard as they could.**

**"Didn't you hear about that, Ted?" asked Dirk. "About the kids who tried to steal Gryffindor's sword out of Snape's office at Hogwarts?"**

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. "They haven't been near Hogwarts?" James said.

"Well, it's obviously not them." Remus rolled his eyes, as if it's the most obvious thing.

**An electric current seemed to course through Harry, jangling his every nerve as he stood rooted to the spot.**

**"Never heard a word," said Ted, "Not in the Prophet, was it?"**

**"Hardly," chortled Dirk. "Griphook here told me, he heard about it from Bill Weasley who works for the bank. One of the kids who tried to take the sword was Bill's younger sister."**

"Ginny." Molly mouthed a few times, a few people gulped. They didn't know how much Ginny would get punished.

**Harry glanced toward Hermione and Ron, both of whom were clutching the Extendable Ears as tightly as lifelines.**

**"She and a couple of friends got into Snape's office and smashed open the glass case where he was apparently keeping the sword. Snape caught them as they were trying to smuggle it down the staircase."**

A few people winced, they didn't want to think about what happened.

**"Ah, God bless 'em," said Ted. "What did they think, that they'd be able to use the sword on You-Know-Who? Or on Snape himself?"**

Despite the situation Sirius's lips twitch. _Now isn't that an intriguing thought_

Lily gave a small chuckled but it sounded more like a sob.

**"Well, whatever they thought they were going to do with it, Snape decided the sword wasn't safe where it was," said Dirk. "Couple of days later, once he'd got the say-so from You-Know-Who, I imagine, he sent it down to London to be kept in Gringotts instead."**

**The goblins started to laugh again.**

**"I'm still not seeing the joke," said Ted.**

**"It's a fake," rasped Griphook.**

Sirius burst out laughing, a few other chuckled but none found it as funny as Sirius did.

**"The sword of Gryffindor!"**

**"Oh yes. It is a copy - an excellent copy, it is true - but it was Wizard-made. The original was forged centuries ago by goblins and had certain properties only goblin-made armor possesses. Wherever the genuine sword of Gryffindor is, it is not in a vault at Gringotts bank."**

**"I see," said Ted. "And I take it you didn't bother telling the Death Eaters this."**

"Of course not." Sirius bragged

**"I saw no reason to trouble them with the information," said Griphook smugly, and now Ted and Dean joined in Gornuk and Dirk's laughter.**

A few other people laughed a little louder too this time. Sirius still finding it completely hilarious.

**Inside the tent, Harry closed his eyes, willing someone to ask the question he needed answered, and after a minute that seemed ten, Dean obliged: he was (Harry remembered with a jolt) an ex-boyfriend of Ginny's too.**

A few smiled, and Sirius yelled amusing everyone "Oh, Harry" it seemed to cheer a lot of people up, but everyone wanted to know how Ginny was, especially Arthur and Molly.

**"What happened to Ginny and all the others? The ones who tried to steal it?"**

**"Oh, they were punished, and cruelly," said Griphook indifferently.**

A lot of people paled. What did that mean? Molly was holding onto Arthur with a death grip.

**"They're okay, though?" asked Ted quickly, "I mean, the Weasleys don't need any more of their kids injured, do they?"**

Again everyone was pale now, Arthur didn't know what to say.

"What does that mean?" Dorcas said finally breaking the silence they had held for a few minutes.

Dumbledore sighed "I don't know, but hopefully it is talking about how Mr. Ronald Weasley is supposed to be at ill, unable to go to school" A lot of people nodded a little reassured but some weren't so sure.

**"They suffered no serious injury, as far as I am aware," said Griphook.**

A lot of people let out sighs of relief.

**"Lucky for them," said Ted. "With Snape's track record I suppose we should just be glad they're still alive."**

Arther and Molly winced.

**"You believe that story, then, do you, Ted?" asked Dirk. "You believe Snape killed Dumbledore?**

**"Course I do," said Ted. "You're not going to sit there and tell me you think Potter had anything to do with it?"**

Sirius smiled at Ted defending Harry.

**"Hard to know what to believe these days," muttered Dirk.**

"I guess that's true." Aberforth mumbled.

**"I know Harry Potter," said Dean. "And I reckon he's the real thing - the Chosen One, or whatever you want to call it."**

A lot of people smiled at what Dean said, they didn't think him and Harry were all that close but it still seems like they were friends.

**"Yeah, there's a lot would like to believe he's that, son," said Dirk, "me included. But where is he? Run for it, by the looks of things. You'd think if he knew anything we don't, or had anything special going for him, he'd be out there now fighting, rallying resistance, instead of hiding. And you know, the Prophet made a pretty good case against him -"**

"He is fighting, just not the way you would like him too, but this way is better" Lily huffed angrily. Most nodded along with her.

"Yes, but Lily, he doesn't know that." Marlene assured her.

**"The Prophet?" scoffed Ted. "You deserve to be lied to if you're still reading that much, Dirk. You want the facts, try the Quibbler."**

Everyone looked confused, they had never heard of the Quibbler before – not invented yet – but they were also interested in it.

**There was a sudden explosion of choking and retching, plus a good deal of thumping, by the sound of it. Dirk had swallowed a fish bone. At last he sputtered, "The Quibbler? That lunatic rag of Xeno Lovegood's?"**

Lily grumbled something that sounded like "Oh Merlin" and "That lunatic"

**"It's not so lunatic these days," said Ted. "You want to give it a look, Xeno is printing all the stuff the Prophet's ignoring, not a single mention of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in the last issue. How long they'll let him get with it, mind, I don't know. But Xeno says, front page of every issue, that any wizard who's against You-Know-Who ought to make helping Harry Potter their number-one priority."**

"I like his man. I don't mind his – er – odd appearance, if he's supporting my son, I'm all for it." James said proudly, and Lily smiled, she guessed she could put up with the odd behavior if he supported Harry.

**"Hard to help a boy who's vanished off the face of the earth," said Dirk.**

"That's actually good. No one has a clue what happened to them" Aberforth told everyone "Least the Death Eaters can't find him."

**"Listen, the fact that they haven't caught him yet's one hell of an achievement," said Ted. "I'd take tips from him gladly; it's what we're trying to do, stay free, isn't it?"**

A lot of people nodded.

**"Yeah, well, you've got a point there," said Dirk heavily. "With the whole of the Ministry and all their informers looking for him, I'd have expected him to be caught by now. Mind, who's to say they haven't already caught and killed him without publicizing it?"**

**"Ah, don't say that, Dirk," murmured Ted.**

Lily and James winced at that.

**There was a long pause filled with more clattering of knives and forks. When they spoke again it was to discuss whether they ought to sleep on the back or retreat back up the wooded slope. Deciding the trees would give better cover, they extinguished their fire, then clambered back up the incline, their voices fading away.**

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione reeled in the Extendable Ears. Harry, who had found the need to remain silent increasingly difficult the longer they eavesdropped, now found himself unable to say more then, "Ginny - the sword -"**

**"I know!" said Hermione.**

A few gulped as they remembered about Ginny and her friends, though they wondered who the friends were.

**She lunged for the tiny beaded bag, this time sinking her arm in it right up to the armpit.**

**"Here... we... are..." she said between gritted teeth, and she pulled at something that was evidently in the depths of the bag. Slowly the edge of an ornate picture frame came into sight. Harry hurried to help her. As they lifted the empty portrait of Phineas Nigellus free of Hermione's bag, she kept her wand pointing at it, ready to cast a spell at any moment.**

A lot of people looked confused to why they had such a portrait out.

**"If somebody swapped the real sword for the fake while it was in Dumbledore's office," she panted, as they propped the painting against the side of the tent, "Phineas Nigellus would have seen it happen, he hangs right beside the case!"**

Lily smiled "I really like this girl, brilliant friend for Harry."

**"Unless he was asleep," said Harry, but he still held his breath as Hermione knelt down in front of the empty canvas, her wand directed at its center, cleared her throat, then said:**

**"Er - Phineas? Phineas Nigellus?"**

**Nothing happened.**

"Move" Sirius said impatiently

**"Phineas Nigellus?" said Hermione again. "Professor Black? Please could we talk to you? Please?"**

**"'Please' always helps," said a cold, snide voice, and Phineas Nigellus slid into his portrait. At one, Hermione cried "Obscura!"**

Sirius burst out laughing "I love when things like this happen to people I hate." Everyone either chuckled or rolled their eyes.

**A black blindfold appeared over Phineas Nigellus's clever, dark eyes, causing him to bump into the frame and shriek with pain.**

**"What - how dare - what are you -?"**

This time it was Sirius time to roll his eyes.

**"I'm very sorry, Professor Black," said Hermione, "but it's a necessary precaution!"**

**"Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"**

"Shut up, drama queen" Sirius snarled, James coughed to cover up his laughter when Sirius looked at him.

**"Never mind where we are," said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.**

**"Can that possible be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?"**

"Funny, how he knows his voice." James chuckled

Lily had to burst his bubble though "Not really. Considering he was always in Dumbledore's company, but it wasn't pranks." James deflated a little at the mention his son wasn't a prankster, but perked at the other cool stuff he'd done.

**"Maybe," said Harry, knowing that this would keep Phineas Nigellus's interest. "We've got a couple of questions to ask you - about the sword of Gryffindor."**

**"Ah," said Phineas Nigellus, now turning his head this way and that in an effort to catch sight of Harry, "Yes. That silly girl acted most unwisely there -"**

**"Shut up about my sister," said Ron roughly, Phineas Nigellus raised supercilious eyebrows.**

Arthur smiled at how his children were with their siblings, expect Percy who he sighed thinking about.

**"Who else is here?" he asked, turning his head from side to side. "Your tone displeases me! The girl and her friends were foolhardily in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster."**

**"They weren't thieving," said Harry. "That sword isn't Snape's."**

"Exactly Harry." Sirius smirked but Dumbledore looked thoughtful, he wondered what his portrait had to say to Severus. Of course he trusted him and was killed by him, he must he disappointed, maybe Severus moved him out of the office, he didn't know but he didn't think Severus would listen to him, tell him how disappointed he was ect.

**"It belongs to Professor Snape's school," said Phineas Nigellus. "Exactly what claim did the Weasley girl have upon it? She deserved her punishment, as did the idiot Longbottom and the Lovegood oddity!"**

Alice and Frank's head snapped up, so Neville was involved, so was Luna. But Neville was their son.

**"Neville is not an idiot and Luna is not an oddity!" said Hermione.**

Alice smiled at Hemione standing up for Neville.

**"Where am I?" repeated Phineas Nigellus, starting to wrestle with the blindfold again. "Where have you brought me? Why have you removed me from the house of my forebears?"**

**"Never mind that! How did Snape punish Ginny, Neville, and Luna?" asked Harry urgently.**

Alice bit her lip, she didn't want to know really.

**"Professor Snape sent them into the Forbidden Forest, to do some work for the oaf, Hagrid."**

A lot of people let out relieved breaths, but the parents of Neville and Ginny were still a little nervous

**"Hagrid's not an oaf!" said Hermione shrilly.**

**"And Snape might've though that was a punishment," said Harry, "but Ginny, Neville, and Luna probably had a good laugh with Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest... they've faced plenty worse than the Forbidden Forest, big deal!"**

**He felt relieved; he had been imagining horrors, the Cruciatus Curse at the very least.**

The parents did calm down now, if Harry said they had faced worse than they most likely had, and they most likely did have a laugh.

**"What we really wanted to know, Professor Black, is whether anyone else has, um, taken out the sword at all? Maybe it's been taken away for cleaning - or something!"**

Sirius looked like he wanted to laugh but held back

**Phineas Nigellus paused again in his struggles to free his eyes and sniggered.**

**"Muggle-born," he said, "Goblin-made armor does not require cleaning, simple girl. Goblin's silver repels mundane dirt, imbibing only that which strengthens it."**

**"Don't call Hermione simple," said Harry.**

He laughed a little at this "What an insult"

"Well it is to Hermione" Lily said with a eyebrow

**"I grow weary of contradiction," said Phineas Nigellus. "perhaps it is time for me to return to the headmaster's office.?"**

**Still blindfolded, he began groping the side of his frame, trying to feel his way out of his picture and back into the one at Hogwarts. Harry had a sudden inspiration.**

**"Dumbledore! Can't you bring us Dumbledore?"**

"Can't do that, can you sir?" Lily asked Dumbledore who shook his head.

**"I beg your pardon?" asked Phineas Nigellus.**

**"Professor Dumbledore's portrait - couldn't you bring him along, here, into yours?"**

**Phineas Nigellus turned his face in the direction of Harry's voice.**

**"Evidently it is not only Muggle-borns who are ignorant, Potter. The portraits of Hogwarts may commune with each other, but they cannot travel outside of the castle except to visit a painting of themselves elsewhere. Dumbledore cannot come here with me, and after the treatment I have received at your hands, I can assure you that I will not be making a return visit!"**

"Oh because he was so looking forward to the next visit" Sirius said sarcastically.

**Slightly crestfallen, Harry watched Phineas redouble his attempts to leave his frame.**

**"Professor Black," said Hermione, "couldn't you just tell us, please, when was the last time the sword was taken out of its case? Before Ginny took it out, I mean?"**

**Phineas snorted impatiently.**

"I don't like this man." Lily huffed impatiently too.

"Welcome to the club." Sirius muttered darkly

**"I believe that the last time I saw the sword of Gryffindor leave its case was when Professor Dumbledore used it to break open a ring."**

Everyone gasped and their eyes went wide. So that's why he left it.

**Hermione whipped around to look at Harry. Neither of them dared say more in front of Phineas Nigellus, who had at least managed to locate the exit.**

**"Well, good night to you," he said a little waspishly, and he began to move out of sight again. Only the edge of his hat brim remained in view when Harry gave a sudden shout.**

**"Wait! Have you told Snape you saw this?"**

A few bit their lips, hoping he didn't

**Phineas Nigellus stuck his blindfolded head back into the picture.**

**"Professor Snape has more important things on his mind that the many eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore. Good-bye, Potter!"**

Most let out breathes they didn't know they were holding, at least they have a lead now.

**And with that, he vanished completely, leaving behind him nothing but his murky backdrop.**

**"Harry!" Hermione cried.**

**"I know!" Harry shouted. Unable to contain himself, he punched the air; it was more than he had dared to hope for. **

Everyone smiled, it was nice to see him happy again.

**He strode up and down the tent, feeling that he could have run a mile; he did not even feel hungry anymore. Hermione was squashing Phineas Nigellus's back into the beaded bag; when she had fastened the clasp she threw the bag aside and raised a shining face to Harry.**

**"The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthens them - Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!"**

**"And Dumbledore didn't give it to me because he still needed it, he wanted to use it on the locket -"**

**"-and he must have realized they wouldn't let you have it if he put it in his will-"**

**"- so he made a copy -"**

**"-and put a fake in the glass case -"**

**"-and he left the real one - where?"**

Everyone turned to looked at a unfazed looking Dumbledore, they were all high on excitement and all looking for answers now.

**They gazed at east other Harry felt that the answer was dangling invisibly in the air above them, tantalizingly close. Why hadn't Dumbledore told him? Or had he, in fact, told Harry, but Harry had not realized it at the time?**

_Maybe? _Dumbledore thought_ but unlikely_

**"Think!" whispered Hermione. "Think! Where would he have left it?"**

**"Not at Hogwarts," said Harry, resuming his pacing.**

**"Somewhere in Hogsmeade?" suggested Hermione.**

**"The Shrieking Shack?" said Harry. "Nobody ever goes in there."**

**"But Snape knows how to get in, wouldn't that be a bit risky?"**

"I wouldn't leave it there" Dumbledore assured them, while the three friends silently wondering how if how the they knew Snape knew how to get in. They quickly caught each other's eye but let it drop.

**"Dumbledore trusted Snape," Harry reminded her.**

**"Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords," said Hermione.**

**"Yeah, you're right!" said Harry, and he felt even more cheered at the thought that Dumbledore had had some reservations, however faint, about Snape's trustworthiness. "So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Ron?"**

**Harry looked around. For one bewildered moment he thought that Ron had left the tent, then realized that Ron was lying in the shadow of a bunk, looking stony.**

"Is he ok?" Molly asked. Everyone exchanged a glance _What is it now Ron?_

**"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.**

Most people groaned "Don't be a prat Ron." Sirius nearly shouted

**"What?"**

**Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.**

**"You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."**

**Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was.**

**"What's the problem?" asked Harry.**

"Yeah?" echoed around the room.

**"Problem? There's no problem," said Ron, still refusing to look at Harry. "Not according to you, anyways."**

**There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.**

**"Well, you've obviously got a problem," said Harry. "Spit it out, will you?"**

**Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself.**

"Ron" Arthur said in a warning voice.

**"All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."**

"Ronald" Molly said shocked_You'll regret this, just stop._

**"I don't know?" repeated Harry. "I don't know?"**

**Plunk, plunk, plunk. The rain was falling harder and heavier; it pattered on the leaf-strewn bank all around them and into the river chattering through the dark. Dread doused Harry's jubilation; Ron was saying exactly what he had suspected and feared him to be thinking.**

"It's just the locket, Molly he's just letting it affect him too much." Lily told her, she didn't like how disappointed in her son she was.

**"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," said Ron, "you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."**

"Has he not been listening, or seeing? They have a Horcrux … he's wearing it. Now they know how to destroy it." Sirius said in stunned, he had grown too really like Ron.

**"Ron," Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was beating on the tent.**

**"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for." said Harry.**

**"Yeah, I thought I did too."**

**"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defense now. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?"**

James winced at the 'mummy' part. Most likely not the best thing to say.

**"We thought you knew what you were doing!" shouted Ron, standing up, and his words Harry like scalding knives. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"**

Everyone was now staring at the book, this wasn't the Ron they had grown to love. Fair enough the locket is playing a big part but Ron was still saying this, the locket couldn't have affected him this much.

**"Ron!" said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.**

**"Well, sorry to let you down," said Harry, his voice quite calm even though he felt hollow, inadequate. "I've been straight with you from the start. I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in the case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux -"**

**"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them - nowhere effing near in other words."**

Molly was so angry and shocked she didn't even scold him for inappropriate language

**"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione said, her voice unusually high. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."**

"Listen to her Ron, please?" Molly was nearly begging the book.

**"Yeah, he would," said Harry, who did not want excuses made for Ron. "D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D'you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?"**

**"Harry, we weren't -"**

**"Don't lie!" Ron hurled at her. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than -"**

**"I didn't say it like that - Harry, I didn't!" she cried.**

"He's bringing people down with him." Sirius growled, he was very angry with Ron right now. "Keep her out of your own mistake Ron."

**The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet, and cold. The sword of Gryffindor was hidden they knew not where, and they were three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.**

"Don't think like that Harry," James said angrily. What the hell did that bloody guy think he was doing, ruining their one good moment in weeks like that?

**"So why are you still here?" Harry asked Ron.**

**"Search me," said Ron.**

**"Go home then," said Harry.**

A lot of people narrowed their eyes. _He wouldn't … would he? _They shook their heads they didn't know what to think now.

**"Yeah, maybe I will!" shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happened to her in there - well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff -"**

If the tension was different, Sirius would have laughed at Ron's description of the Forest Creatures but he didn't have it in him right now.

**"I was only saying - she was with the others, they were with Hagrid -"**

**"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"**

"Ron, I'm sure that's not what was meant" Arthur reassured his son in the book, knowing he couldn't be heard.

**"Yeah, I -"**

**"Not bothered what it meant, though?"**

**"Ron!" said Hermione, forcing her way between them. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scared, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant -"**

"Exactly, listen to him Ronnie." Molly whispered as if she were talking a very sick four year old

**"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way -"**

Nearly everyone in the room gasped now. "He didn't" Sirius growled. That was it, he really crossed the line bring James and Lily in.

Molly and Arthur were appalled Ron would say that, he knows perfectly well that's a sore subject for Harry.

**"My parents are dead!" Harry bellowed.**

**"And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron.**

"No, we aren't Ronald" Molly was nearly yelling.

**"Then GO!" roared Harry. "Go back to them, pretend you're got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and -"**

**Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.**

A lot of people stared at the book wide-eyed.

**"Prestego!" she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred toward Ron: Something had broken between them.**

"No kidding" Remus muttered. He couldn't imagine abandoning Sirius or James, or even them abandoning him.

**"Leave the Horcrux," Harry said.**

**Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.**

**"What are you doing?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"Are you staying, or what?"**

**"I..." She looked anguished. "Yes - yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help -"**

**"I get it. You choose him."**

"It's not about choosing people, it's about what is right and what is wrong." Lily croaked out, she had been silent the whole argument. She didn't like seeing Ron act this way, Harry need him, now more than ever.

**"Ron, no - please - come back, come back!"**

**She was impeded by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it he had already stormed into the night. Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to her sobbing and calling Ron's name amongst the trees.**

**After a few minutes she returned, her sopping hair plastered to her face.**

**"He's g-g-gone! Disapparated!"**

"That bloody git" James shouted.

"We are so sorr –" Molly began but was cut off by James "No, it's you're fault you didn't do it. You're son did"

**She threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry.**

Molly huffed angrily and let a tear fall, her son had made Hermione cry.

**Harry felt dazed. He stooped, picked up the Horcrux, and placed it around his own neck. He dragged blankets off Ron's bunk and threw them over Hermione. Then he climbed onto his own bed and stared up at the dark canvas roof, listening to the pounding of the rain.**

Everyone sat for a long while in silence, since they started reading they didn't think that Ron and Harry were able to separate. Now they had both gone different ways.

* * *

_If you have any questions, review and i'll answer them, next update._


	24. Godric's Hollow

Dumbledore looked saddened by what had happened, it was him that made that friendship break, well future him, he was the one to send Harry on that mission. Sirius was fuming with anger, friends should never betray friends, maybe it was making him this angry because he was thinking about Peter, but that didn't change the fact Ron parents of both boys were shocked, and disappointed in Ron. Harry needed him, now more than ever. Dumbledore decided to continue before anyone could brood too much.

**When Harry woke the following day it was several seconds before he remembered what had happened. Then he hoped childishly, that it had been a dream, that Ron was still there and had never left. Yet by turning his head on his pillow he could see Ron's deserted bunk. **

Sirius was massaging his temple, he was taking this worse than the others, he thought it might be because he thought Ron was like him in a way, and Hermione was Remus, and Harry was James. That's what he thought, but now Ron had left and he felt like he would never to that, he just let down.

**It was like a dead body in the way it seems to draw his eyes. Harry jumped down from his own bed, keeping his eyes averted from Ron's. Hermione, who was already busy in the kitchen, did not wish Harry good morning, but turned her face away quickly as he went by. **

Molly sighed sadly _The poor girl … look at what you've done Ronald, that's not fair._

**He's gone, Harry told himself. He's gone. He had to keep thinking it as he washed and dressed as though repetition would dull the shock of it. He's gone and he's not coming back. And that was the simple truth of it, Harry knew, because their protective enchantments meant that it would be impossible, once they vacated this spot, for Ron to find them again. **

Everyone looked shocked, they forgot that, but now it was never positive that Ron was not coming back, he couldn't.

Moody grunted, they need to keep their mind on the task. Not their friend, that left. He's gone, so now they had to move on.

**He and Hermione ate breakfast in silence. Hermione's eyes were puffy and red; she looked as if she had not slept. They packed up their things, Hermione dawdling. Harry knew why she wanted to spin out their time on the riverbank; several times he saw her look up eagerly, and he was sure she had deluded herself into thinking that she heard footsteps through the heavy rain, but no red-haired figure appeared between the trees. Every time Harry imitated her, looked around (for he could not help hoping a little, himself) and saw nothing but rain-swept woods, another little parcel of fury exploded inside him. He could hear Ron saying, "We thought you knew what you were doing!", and he resumed packing with a hard knot in the pit of his stomach.**

No one talked, but they all felt betrayed; for Harry's sake.

**The muddy river beside them was rising rapidly and would soon spill over onto their bank. They had lingered a good hour after they would usually have departed their campsite. Finally having entirely repacked the beaded bag three times, Hermione seemed unable to find any more reasons to delay: She and Harry grasped hands and Disapparated, reappearing on a windswept heather-covered hillside. The instant they arrived, Hermione dropped Harry's hand and walked away from him, finally sitting down on a large rock, her face on her knees, shaking with what he knew were sobs. **

"And now he's gone." Frank added sadly, but no one looked at him or replied.

**He watched her, supposing that he ought to go and comfort her, but something kept him rooted to the spot. Everything inside him felt cold and tight: Again he saw the contemptuous expression on Ron's face. Harry strode off through the heather, walking in a large circle with the distraught Hermione at its center, casting the spell she usually performed to ensure their protection.**

"Good man. Least he's still doing what he had to do." Moody whispered to himself, some heard him but they ignored him.

**They did not discuss Ron at all over the next few days. Harry was determined never to mention his name again and Hermione seemed to know that it was no use forcing the issue, although sometimes at night when she thought he was sleeping, he would hear her crying. Meanwhile Harry had started bringing out the Marauder's map and examining it by wandlight. He was waiting for the moment when Ron's labeled dot would reappear in the corridors of Hogwarts, proving that he had returned to the comfortable castle, protected by his status of pureblood. However, Ron did not appear on the map and after a while Harry found himself taking it out simply to stare at Ginny's name in the girl's dormitory, wondering whether the intensity with which he gazed at it might break into her sleep, that she would somehow know he was thinking about her, hoping that she was all right.**

Molly couldn't help but smile though a few tears she had, Lily cooed at her son's love for Ginny. Everyone else hoped she was alright too.

**By day, they devoted themselves to trying to determine the possible locations of Gryffindor's sword, but the more they talked about the places in which Dumbledore might have hidden it, the more desperate and far-fetched their speculation became. Cudgel his brains though he might, Harry could not remember Dumbledore ever mentioning a place in which he might hide something. There were moments when he did not know whether he was angrier with Ron or with Dumbledore. We thought you knew what you were doing...We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do... We thought you had a real plan!**

Dumbledore sighed, he couldn't believed himself leaving a boy to do this, if he did care about him as much as he claimed – and he didn't doubt he did – then there must be some bigger picture, that Harry's not understood yet.

**He could not hide it from himself: Ron had been right. Dumbledore had left him with virtually nothing. They had discovered one Horcrux, but they had no means of destroying it: The others were as unattainable as they had ever been. Hopelessness threatened to engulf him. He was staggered now to think of his own presumption in accepting his friends' offers to accompany him on this meandering, pointless journey. He knew nothing, he had no ideas, and he was constantly, painfully on the alert for any indications that Hermione too was about to tell him that she had had enough. That she was leaving.**

"She won't" Alice whispered to herself, and the people beside her nodded, having heard her talk softly to herself.

**They were spending many evenings in near silence and Hermione took to bringing out Phineas Nigellus's portrait and propping it up in a chair, as though he might fill part of the gaping hole left by Ron's departure. Despite his previous assertion that he would never visit them again, Phineas Nigellus did not seem able to resist the chance to find out more about what Harry was up to and consented to reappear, blindfolded, every few days of so. **

"Bet he couldn't" Sirius said, knowing how noisy Phineas was.

**Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and taunting kind. They relished any news about what was happening at Hogwarts, though Phineas Nigellus was not an ideal informer. He venerated Snape, the first Slytherin headmaster since he himself had controlled the school, and they had to be careful not to criticize or ask impertinent questions about Snape, or Phineas Nigellus would instantly leave his painting.**

"I'd let him, it seems better." Sirius commented again, other people just glared at him to shut up.

**However, he did let drop certain snippets. Snape seemed to be facing a constant, low level of mutiny from a hard core of students. Ginny had been banned from going into Hogsmeade. Snape had reinstated Umbridge's old decree forbidding gatherings of three or more students or any unofficial student societies. From all of these things, Harry deduced that Ginny, and probably Neville and Luna along with her, had been doing their best to continue Dumbledore's Army. **

"We still don't know what Dumbledore's Army is?" Lily said a little curious. Alice and Frank were yet again interested to see if anymore would be said about Neville, they really wanted to hear about him.

**This scant news made Harry want to see Ginny so badly it felt like a stomachache; but it also made him think of Ron again, and of Dumbledore, and of Hogwarts itself, which he missed nearly as much as his ex-girlfriend. Indeed, as Phineas Niggellus talked about Snape's crackdown, Harry experienced a split second of madness when he imagined simply going back to school to join the destabilization of Snape's regime: Being fed and having a soft bad, and other people being in charge, seemed the most wonderful prospect in the world at this moment. But then he remembered that he was Undesirable Number One, that there was a ten-thousand Galleon price on his head, and that to walk into Hogwarts these days was just as dangerous as walking into the Ministry of Magic. **

"Yes, Harry … don't even attempted it." James said slowly, his son wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts even if he wanted to now.

**Indeed, Phineas Nigellus inadvertently emphasized this fact by slipping in leading questions about Harry and Hermione's whereabouts. Hermione shoved him back inside the beaded bag every time he did this, and Phineas Nigellus invariably refused to reappear for several days after these unceremonious good-byes.**

**The weather grew colder and colder. They did not dare remain in any area too long, so rather than staying in the south of England, where a hard ground frost was the worst of their worries, they continued to meander up and down the country, braving a mountainside, where sleet pounded the tent; a wide, flat marsh, where the tent was flooded with chill water; and a tiny island in the middle of a Scottish loch, where snow half buried the tent in the night.**

"That's not good."

** They had already spotted Christmas Trees twinkling from several sitting room windows before there came an evening when Harry resolved to suggest again, what seemed to him the only unexplored avenue left to them. They had just eaten an unusually good meal: Hermione had been to a supermarket under the Invisibility Cloak (scrupulously dropping the money into an open till as she left), and Harry thought that she might be more persuadable than usual on a stomach full of spaghetti Bolognese and tinned pears.**

Molly smiled, at least they were eating a little, even if that was all.

**He had also had the foresight to suggest that they take a few hours' break from wearing the Horcrux, which was hanging over the end of the bunk beside him.**

"Keep it there" Molly suggested a little hopeful.

**"Hermione?"**

**"Hmm?" She was curled up in one of the sagging armchairs with The Tales of Beedle the Bard. He could not imagine how much more she could get out of the book, which was not, after all, very long, but evidently she was still deciphering something in it, because Spellman's Syllabary lay open on the arm of the chair.**

Dumbledore looked a little curious, he wondered why he had left this to Hermione, but he knew everything was not always as it seemed from the outside.

**Harry cleared his throat. He felt exactly as he had done on the occasion, several years previously, when he had asked Professor McGonagall whether he could go into Hogsmeade, despite the fact that he had not persuaded the Dursleys to sign his permission slip.**

"Really?" James said very slowly "They didn't even sigh a bloody form"

Lily flung her arms up in the air "I'm not even surprised."

**"Hermione, I've been thinking, and -"**

**"Harry, could you help me with something?"**

**Apparently she had not been listening to him. She leaned forward and held out The Tales of Beedle the Bard.**

Everyone else looked a little interested in Hermione's book too, they wanted to know if this was what Dumbledore left her it for.

**"Look at that symbol," she said, pointing to the top of a page. Above what Harry assumed was the title of the story (being unable to read runes, he could not be sure), there was a picture of what looked like a triangular eye, its pupil crossed with a vertical line.**

Dumbledore's eyes widened a little, why did he put that there. He wouldn't be foolish enough to send other children into the same foolish obsession he had, could he? He hoped not, but it seemed like he did. What good was it to tell them about it, how would it help. He was not positive that Harry's clock was a Hallow. He read on before anyone could noticed him thinking it over.

**"I never took Ancient Runes, Hermione."**

**"I know that; but it isn't a rune and it's not in the syllabary, either. All along I thought it was a picture of an eye, but I don't think it is! It's been inked in, look, somebody's drawn it there, it isn't really part of the book. Think, have you ever seen it before?"**

Dumbledore closed his eyes, yes he had done this. But why?

**"No... No, wait a moment." Harry looked closer. "Isn't it the same symbol Luna's dad was wearing round his neck?"**

**"Well, that's what I thought too!"**

**"Then it's Grindelwald's mark."**

Everyone looked at Dumbledore, especially Aberforth "But you said it's not, but you know what it is, don't you?" Aberforth accused.

"Yes, yes I do."

"Well?"

"I'm sure you'll find out" he replied making his brother huff annoyed.

**She stared at him, openmouthed.**

**"What?"**

**"Krum told me..."**

**He recounted the story that Viktor Krum had told him at the wedding. Hermione looked astonished.**

**"Grindelwald's mark?"**

**She looked from Harry to the weird symbol and back again. "I've never heard that Grindelwald had a mark. There's no mention of it in anything I've ever read about him."**

"That's because he's not" Sirius said matter-of-factly.

**"Well, like I say, Krum reckoned that symbol was carved on a wall at Durmstrang, and Grindelwald put it there."**

Frank looked thoughtful "That could just mean that whatever it is, was important to Grindelwald."

Aberforth turned to his brother, and smirked a little taunting "Yes, is it Albus?"

Dumbledore didn't reacted to his brothers taunt, he just replied "Yes. It is."

Everyone was wondering how Dumbledore would know, but they guessed it was because he, like Harry, found out everything about the enemy before they defeated him. But Aberforth continued to stare at his brother, when their eyes met, Aberforth's unsaid words couldn't be more obvious _You know they'll find out, why hold back, secrets make everything worse._

**She fell back into the old armchair, frowning.**

**"That's very odd. If it's a symbol of Dark Magic, what's it doing in a book of children's stories?"**

**"Yeah, it is weird," said Harry. "And you'd think Scrimgeour would have recognized it. He was Minister, he ought to have been expert on Dark stuff."**

**"I know... Perhaps he thought it was an eye, just like I did. All the other stories have little pictures over the titles."**

**She did not speak, but continued to pore over the strange mark. Harry tried again.**

**"Hermione?"**

**"Hmm?"**

**"I've been thinking. I - I want to go to Godric's Hollow."**

A few people frowned.

**She looked up at him, but her eyes were unfocused, and he was sure she was still thinking about the mysterious mark on the book.**

**"Yes," she said. "Yes, I've been wondering that too. I really think we'll have to."**

"What?" a few people echoed, they didn't expect that.

**"Did you hear me right?" he asked.**

Sirius chuckled a little

**"Of course I did. You want to go to Godric's Hollow. I agree. I think we should. I mean, I can't think of anywhere else it could be either. It'll be dangerous, but the more I think about it, the more likely it seems it's there."**

**"Er - what's there?" asked Harry.**

**At that, she looked just as bewildered as he felt.**

**"Well, the sword, Harry! Dumbledore must have known you'd want to go back there, and I mean, Godric's Hollow is Godric Gryffindor's birthplace -"**

**"Really? Gryffindor came from Godric's Hollow?"**

Sirius and James started laughing, but Remus and Lily looked appalled. How did he not know that?

**"Harry, did you ever even open A History of Magic?"**

**"Erm," he said, smiling for what felt like the first time in months: The muscles in his face felt oddly stiff. "I might've opened it, you know, when I bought it... just the once..."**

Sirius and James were still laughing when James said "That's my boy" as if not opening the book was the best thing he'd ever done. Minerva looked like she might actually laughing but her lips thinned a little.

**"Well, as the village is named after him I'd have thought you might have made the connection," said Hermione. She sounded much more like her old self than she had done of late; Harry half expected her to announce that she was off to the library. **

"Reminds me of you two," Sirius said pointed to Lily and Remus who just rolled their eyes.

**"There's a bit about the village in A History of Magic, wait..."**

**She opened the beaded bag and rummaged for a while, finally extracting her copy of their old school textbook, A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, which she thumbed through until finding the page she wanted.**

**"'Upon the signature of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, wizards went into hiding for good. It was natural, perhaps, that they formed their own small communities within a community. Many small villages and hamlets attracted several magical families, who banded together for mutual support and protection. The villages of Tinworsh in Cornwall, Upper Flagley in Yorkshire, and Ottery St. Catchpole on the south coast of England were notable homes to knots of Wizarding families who lived alongside tolerant and sometimes Confunded Muggles. Most celebrated of these half-magical dwelling places is, perhaps, Godric's Hollow, the West Country village where the great wizard Godric Gryffindor was born, and where Bowman Wright, Wizarding smith, forged the first Golden Snitch. The graveyard is full of the names of ancient magical families, and this accounts, no doubt, for the stories of hauntings that have dogged the little church beside it for many centuries.'"**

**"You and your parents aren't mentioned." Hermione said, closing the book, "because Professor Bagshot doesn't cover anything later than the end of the nineteenth century. But you see? Godric's Hollow, Godric Gryffindor, Gryffindor's sword; don't you think Dumbledore would have expected you to make the connection?"**

Dumbledore didn't think it was likely but hoped so, so that it wasn't a wasted visit, if they did go.

**"Oh yeah..."**

**Harry did not want to admit that he had not been thinking about the sword at all when he suggested they go to Godric's Hollow. For him, the lore of the village lay in his parents' graves, the house where he had narrowly escaped death, and in the person of Bathilda Bagshot.**

**"Remember what Muriel said?" he asked eventually.**

"Wish we wouldn't" Alice said a little irritated. She remembered everything Muriel said.

**"Who?"**

**"You know," he hesitated. He did not want to say Ron's name. "Ginny's great-aunt. At the wedding. The one who said you had skinny ankles."**

**"Oh," said Hermione. It was a sticky moment: Harry knew that she had sensed Ron's name in the offing. He rushed on**

**"She said Bathilda Bagshot still lived in Godric's Hollow."**

**"Bathilda Bagshot," murmured Hermione, running her index finger over Bathilda's embossed name on the front cover of A History of Magic. "Well, I suppose -"**

**She gasped so dramatically that Harry's insides turned over; he drew his wand, looking around at the entrance, half expecting to see a hand forcing its way through the entrance flap, but there was nothing there.**

Everyone automatically tensed.

**"What?" he said, half angry, half relieved. "What did you do that for? I thought you'd seen a Death Eater unzipping the tent, at least -"**

Everyone let out a synced breath of relief now.

**"Harry, what if Bathilda's got the sword? What if Dumbledore entrusted it to her?"**

**Harry considered this possibility. Bathilda would be an extremely old woman by now, and according to Muriel, she was "gaga." Was it likely that Dumbledore would have hidden the sword of Gryffindor with her? If so, Harry felt that Dumbledore had left a great deal to chance: Dumbledore had never revealed that he had replaced the sword with a fake, nor had he so much as mentioned a friendship with Bathilda. Now, however, was not the moment to cast doubt on Hermione's theory, not when she was so surprisingly willing to fall in with Harry's dearest wish.**

A lot of people frowned, they had a feeling something was about to go tragically wrong.

**"Yeah, he might have done! So, are we going to go to Godric's Hollow?"**

**"Yes, but we'll have to think it through carefully, Harry." She was sitting up now, and Harry could tell that the prospect of having a plan again had lifted her mood as much as his. "We'll need to practice Disapparating together under the Invisibility Cloak for a start, and perhaps Disillusionment Charms would be sensible too, unless you think we should go the whole hog and use Polyjuice Potion? In that case we'll need to collect hair from somebody. I actually think we'd better do that, Harry, the thicker our disguises the better..."**

"Good" Moody grunted, at least they were back doing what they should have done right after Ron left, carrying on what they had done before he'd left.

**Harry let her talk, nodding and agreeing whenever there was a pause, but his mind had left the conversation. For the first time since he had discovered that the sword in Gringotts was a fake, he felt excited.**

A lot of people smiled, that was nice to hear.

**He was about to go home, about to return to the place where he had had a family. It was in Godric's Hollow that, but for Voldemort, he would have grown up and spent every school holiday. He could have invited friends to his house... He might even have had brothers and sisters... It would have been his mother who had made his seventeenth birthday cake. The life he had lost had hardly ever seemed so real to him as at this moment, when he knew he was about to see the place where it had been taken from him. **

Lily sniffed sadly, and a lot of woman had tears in their eyes, _poor boy_ everyone thought. The poor boy didn't even had a real family. Except the Weasley's, but they still weren't sure when they had first met.

**After Hermione had gone to bed that night, Harry quietly extracted his rucksack from Hermione's beaded bag, and from inside it, the photograph album Hagrid had given him so long ago. For the first time in months, he perused the old pictures of his parents, smiling and waving up at him from the images, which were all he had left of them now.**

James and Lily smiled sadly at each other, they didn't know if they really wanted to hear about their graves but if it helped Harry.

**Harry would gladly have set out for Godric's Hollow the following day, but Hermione had other ideas. Convinced as she was that Voldemort would expect Harry to return to the scene of his parents' deaths, she was determined that they would set off only after they had ensured that they had the best disguises possible. It was therefore a full week later - once they had surreptitiously obtained hairs from innocent Muggles who were Christmas shopping, and had practiced Apparating and Disapparating while underneath the Invisibility Cloak together - that Hermione agreed to make the journey.**

Everyone was not looked a little scared but happy, they didn't know what they were about to find.

**They were to Apparate to the village under cover of darkness, so it was late afternoon when they finally swallowed Polyjuice Potion, Harry transforming into a balding, middle-aged Muggle man, Hermione into his small and rather mousy wife. The beaded bag containing all of their possessions (apart from the Horcrux, which Harry was wearing around his neck) was tucked into an inside pocket of Hermione's buttoned-up coat. Harry lowered the Invisibility Cloak over them, then they turned into the suffocating darkness once again.**

**Heart beating in his throat, Harry opened his eyes. They were standing hand in hand in a snowy lane under a dark blue sky, in which the night's first stars were already glimmering feebly. Cottages stood on either side of the narrow road, Christmas decorations twinkling in their windows. A short way ahead of them, a glow of golden streetlights indicated the center of the village.**

**"All this snow!" Hermione whispered beneath the cloak. "Why didn't we think of snow? After all our precautions, we'll leave prints! We'll just have to get rid of them - you go in front, I'll do it -"**

**Harry did not want to enter the village like a pantomime horse, trying to keep themselves concealed while magically covering their traces.**

**"Let's take off the Cloak," said Harry, and when she looked frightened, "Oh, come on, we don't look like us and there's no one around."**

"Potter." Moody growled cautiously.

**He stowed the Cloak under his jacket and they made their way forward unhampered, the icy air stinging their faces as they passed more cottages. Any one of them might have been the one in which James and Lily had once lived or where Bathilda lived now. Harry gazed at the front doors, their snow-burdened roofs, and their front porches, wondering whether he remembered any of them, knowing deep inside that it was impossible, that he had been little more than a year old when he had left this place forever. He was not even sure whether he would be able to see the cottage at all; he did not know what happened when the subjects of a Fidelius Charm died. **

A couple of people looked curious too, until Minerva answered "It would have died with him." A few people nodded; most likely someone new lived it that house now anyway.

**Then the little lane along which they were walking curved to the left and the heart of the village, a small square, was revealed to them.**

**Strung all around with colored lights, there was what looked like a war memorial in the middle, partly obscured by a windblown Christmas tree. There were several shops, a post office, a pub, and a little church whose stained-glass windows were glowing jewel-bright across the square.**

**The snow here had become impacted: It was hard and slippery where people had trodden on it all day. Villagers were crisscrossing in front of them, their figures briefly illuminated by streetlamps. They heard a snatch of laughter and pop music as the pub door opened and closed; then they heard a carol start up inside the little church.**

A few people smiled at the description, it sounds nice.

**"Harry, I think it's Christmas Eve!" said Hermione.**

**"Is it?"**

**He had lost track of the date; they had not seen a newspaper for weeks.**

**"I'm sure it is," said Hermione, her eyes upon the church. "They... they'll be in there, won't they? Your mum and dad? I can see the graveyard behind it."**

A lot of people looked a little afraid, especially Sirius and Remus, they didn't know what it would feel like to hear about their best friends grave. But they were sure it wasn't going to be the best experience.

**Harry felt a thrill of something that was beyond excitement, more like fear. Now that he was so near, he wondered whether he wanted to see after all. **

A few people who felt the same nodded.

**Perhaps Hermione knew how he was feeling, because she reached for his hand and took the lead for the first time, pulling him forward. Halfway across the square, however, she stopped dead.**

**"Harry, look!"**

**She was pointing at the war memorial. As they had passed it, it had transformed. Instead of an obelisk covered in names, there was a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother's arms. Snow lay upon all their heads, like fluffy white caps.**

A few people gasped, but none as loud as Lily, and James looked just as surprised.

"That's so nice." Lily said mopping her tears on her sleeve. Sirius was patting her arm, in a comforting way.

**Harry drew closer, gazing up into his parents' faces. He had never imagined that there would be a statue... How strange it was to see himself represented in stone, a happy baby without a scar on his forehead...**

"I think it's hard to think of him with the scar." James said sadly. His son was so happy and carefree at the age he was now, but in the book he was everything but that.

**"C'mon," said Harry, when he had looked his fill, and they turned again toward the church. As they crossed the road, he glanced over his shoulder; the statue had turned back into the war memorial.**

**The singing grew louder as they approached the church. It made Harry's throat constrict, it reminded him so forcefully of Hogwarts, of Peeves bellowing rude versions of carols from inside suits of armor, of the Great Hall's twelve Christmas trees, of Dumbledore wearing a bonnet he had won in a cracker, of Ron in a hand-knitted sweater...**

A few smiled and remembered their Christmas's at Hogwarts, it seemed so far away, now that they were in the Order and the war was all around them.

**There was a kissing gate at the entrance to the graveyard. Hermione pushed it open as quietly as possible and they edged through it. On either side of the slippery path to the church doors, the snow lay deep and untouched. They moved off through the snow, carving deep trenches behind them as they walked around the building, keeping to the shadows beneath the brilliant windows.**

**Behind the church, row upon row of snowy tombstones protruded from a blanket of pale blue that was flecked with dazzling red, gold, and green wherever the reflections from the stained glass hit the snow. Keeping his hand closed tightly on the wand in his jacket pocket, Harry moved toward the nearest grave.**

**"Look at this, it's an Abbott, could be some long-lost relation of Hannah's!"**

"Who's Hannah?" Sirius said stupidly.

"Obviously Hannah Abbott." Remus answered rolling his eyes.

**"Keep your voice down," Hermione begged him.**

**They waded deeper and deeper into the graveyard, gouging dark tracks into the snow behind them, stooping to peer at the words on old headstones, every now and then squinting into the surrounding darkness to make absolutely sure that they were unaccompanied.**

**"Harry, here!"**

**Hermione was two rows of tombstones away; he had to wade back to her, his heart positively banging in his chest.**

A few people frowned, they didn't know if they did want this after all. They didn't know if they wanted to hear about Lily and James's graves. It might hurt too much. It might be too real. Lily and James were a little scared to hear it from Harry's view, seeing as he was their son, and it was his first time.

**"Is it -?"**

**"No, but look!"**

**She pointed to the dark stone. Harry stooped down and saw, upon the frozen, lichen-spotted granite, the words Kendra Dumbledore and, a short way down her dates of birth and death, and Her Daughter Ariana.**

Aberforth and Albus both stiffened very noticeably. They didn't want to hear about their mother and sister's graves, well not when they weren't expecting it. Everyone else looked at them sadly, they didn't know how they died, but it seems it was very hard on the two Dumbledore's at the table.

** There was also a quotation:**

**Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.**

**So Rita Skeeter and Muriel had got some of their facts right. The Dumbledore family had indeed lived here, and part of it had died here.**

**Seeing the grave was worse than hearing about it. Harry could not help thinking that he and Dumbledore both had deep roots in this graveyard, and that Dumbledore ought to have told him so, yet he had never thought to share the connection. They could have visited the place together; for a moment Harry imagined coming here with Dumbledore, of what a bond that would have been, of how much it would have meant to him. But it seemed that to Dumbledore, the fact that their families lay side by side in the same graveyard had been an unimportant coincidence, irrelevant, perhaps, to the job he wanted Harry to do.**

Dumbledore looked sad, at the fact that Harry's opinion on him was changing, and very so.

**Hermione was looking at Harry, and he was glad that his face was hidden in shadow. He read the words on the tombstone again. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He did not understand what these words meant. Surely Dumbledore had chosen them, as the eldest member of the family once his mother had died.**

Aberforth grunted, just because Albus was the eldest didn't mean anything.

**"Are you sure he never mentioned -?" Hermione began.**

**"No," said Harry curtly, then, "let's keep looking," and he turned away, wishing he had not seen the stone: He did not want his excited trepidation tainted with resentment.**

A lot of people were biting their lip, the moment they knew was coming up.

**"Here!" cried Hermione again a few moments later from out of the darkness. "Oh no, sorry! I thought it said Potter."**

Sirius let out a deep breath. Hermione was about to be the death of him.

**She was rubbing at a crumbling, mossy stone, gazing down at it, a little frown on her face.**

**"Harry, come back a moment."**

**He did not want to be sidetracked again, and only grudgingly made his way back through the snow toward her.**

**"What?"**

**"Look at this!"**

"What now?" Sirius said angrily, Remus glared at him and told the unsaid message _shut up and have patience_

**The grave was extremely old, weathered so that Harry could hardly make out the name. Hermione showed him the symbol beneath it.**

**"Harry, that's the mark in the book!"**

Dumbledore nodded knowing that it was likely to happen, he guess they were going to find out about the Hallows anyway.

**He peered at the place she indicated: The stone was so worn that it was hard to make out what was engraved there, though there did seem to be a triangular mark beneath the nearly illegible name.**

**"Yeah... it could be..."**

**Hermione lit her wand and pointed it at the name on the headstone.**

**"It says Ig - Ignotus, I think..."**

"Who's that?" a lot of people asked, Aberforth again was looking at his brother, he knew he knew something about this. He also thought he'd heard Albus and Gellert say it before.

**"I'm going to keep looking for my parents, all right?" Harry told her, a slight edge to his voice, and he set off again, leaving her crouched beside the old grave.**

**Every now and then he recognized a surname that, like Abbott, he had met at Hogwarts. Sometimes there were several generations of the same Wizarding family represented in the graveyard: Harry could tell from the dates that it had either died out, or the current members had moved away from Godric's Hollow. Deeper and deeper amongst the graves he went, and every time he reached a new headstone he felt a little lurch of apprehension and anticipation.**

**The darkness and the silence seemed to become, all of a sudden, much deeper. Harry looked around, worried, thinking of dementors, then realized that the carols had finished, that the chatter and flurry of churchgoers were fading away as they made their way back into the square. Somebody inside the church had just turned off the lights.**

**Then Hermione's voice came out of the blackness for the third time, sharp and clear from a few yards away.**

**"Harry, they're here... right here."**

Dumbledore stopped to give everyone a chance understand and to get ready for what was about to come, they all nodded and when finally Sirius and Remus nodded to continued reading.

**And he knew by her tone that it was his mother and father this time: He moved toward her, feeling as if something heavy were pressing on his chest, the same sensation he had had right after Dumbledore had died, a grief that had actually weighed on his heart and lungs.**

**The headstone was only two rows behind Kendra and Ariana's. It was made of white marble, just like Dumbledore's tomb, and this made it easy to read, as it seemed to shine in the dark. Harry did not need to kneel or even approach very close to it to make out the words engraved upon it.**

**JAMES POTTER LILY POTTER **

**BORN 27 MARCH 1960 BORN 30 JANUARY 1960 **

**DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981 DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981 **

**The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.**

Everyone bowed their heads, some with tears, some just looked clearly upset. James and Lily let out deep breaths and Sirius and Remus were clearly trying not the break down. They didn't want to imagine what it was like the first time they heard it for real, least Lily and James were beside them now, they didn't know how it would feel to know they'd lost Lily and James forever. They didn't really want to think about it. Everyone else sighed looking at the couple and their two best friends at their side. They were like a little family, even without Harry. They didn't know how Remus and Sirius would have managed at all.

**Harry read the words slowly, as though he would have only one chance to take in their meaning, and he read the last of them aloud.**

**"'The last enemy that shall be defeated is death'..." A horrible thought came to him, and with a kind of panic. "Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"**

**"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means... you know... living beyond death. Living after death."**

Lily smiled "Bright girl" she liked that quote.

**But they were not living, thought Harry. They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents' moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.**

James and Lily closed their eyes very tightly _Don't think like that Harry, please._ But when you thought of the life he had, they couldn't blame him. They would hate to have Harry's life, it was like a new drama on every corner. But they still didn't want their son to wish he was dead.

**Hermione had taken his hand again and was gripping it tightly. He could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady himself, trying to regain control. He should have brought something to give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid it on his parents' grave.**

Lily smiled and thought about the girl _Thank you Hermione._

**As soon as he stood up he wanted to leave: He did not think he could stand another moment there. He put his arm around Hermione's shoulders, and she put hers around his waist, and they turned in silence and walked away through the snow, past Dumbledore's mother and sister, back toward the dark church and the out-of-sight kissing gate.**

Sirius let out a gasp that sounded like a sob, "Thank Merlin, it's over" Remus nodded whole-heartedly with him. James was upset at how much this would affect them. He would die and they would need to deal with it.

Dumbledore closed the book. "I think we have had enough for tonight. Why don't we all go and get some sleep. We'll read in the morning." Everyone agreed. They didn't like the idea of reading more just now.


	25. Bathilda's Secret

After a night's sleep, everyone woke up, a little sleepy but determined not to go back to sleep, they wanted to read again. They really were becoming too attached to the book. Or Harry. Most of them missed they could meet him. And Ron, Hermione. And maybe even Ginny.

"Well, no point waiting" Dumbledore said as they all finished their breakfast. Everyone looked a little excited, a lot remembered last night and hoped this time it wouldn't be so sad.

**Harry, stop."**

**"What's wrong?"**

**They had only just reached the grave of the unknown Abbott.**

**"There's someone there. Someone watching us. I can tell. There, over by the bushes."**

A lot hissed angrily. "You got to be joking me" Sirius yelled and flung his hands in the air. That was just completely unfair now.

"Just Harry's luck" Remus whispered sadly.

**They stood quite still, holding on to each other, gazing at the dense black boundary of the graveyard. Harry could not see anything.**

**"Are you sure?"**

**"I saw something move. I could have sworn I did..."**

**She broke from him to free her wand arm.**

Moody nodded, but never said anything, he was already thinking about what would happen.

**"We look like Muggles," Harry pointed out.**

**"Muggles who've just been laying flowers on your parents' grave? **

"Bloody brilliant." James hissed. His son couldn't even go to his grave unwatched. His son couldn't have one private moment to himself.

**Harry, I'm sure there's someone over there!"**

**Harry thought of A History of Magic; the graveyard was supposed to be haunted; what if -? But then he heard a rustle and saw a little eddy of dislodged snow in the bush to which Hermione had pointed. Ghosts could not move snow.**

"No, they don't" Aberforth said stating the obvious and got a few glares, but he rolled his eyes at them.

**"It's a cat," said Harry, after a second or two, "or a bird. If it was a Death Eater we'd be dead by now. But let's get out of here, and we can put the Cloak back on."**

"Good" A lot of people said together.

**They glanced back repeatedly as they made their way out of the graveyard. Harry, who did not feel as sanguine as he had pretended when reassuring Hermione, was glad to reach the gate and the slippery pavement. They pulled the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves. The pub was fuller than before. Many voices inside it were now singing the carol that they had heard as they approached the church. For a moment, Harry considered suggesting they take refuge inside it, but before he could say anything Hermione murmured, "Let's go this way," and pulled him down the dark street leading out of the village in the opposite direction from which they had entered. Harry could make out the point where the cottages ended and the lane turned into open country again. **

James and Lily, and the two friends stiffened, they had all been that way before. That was the Potter's second house, apart from Potter manor. They thought that's where they must have been because Potter manor would have been to obvious. They didn't want Harry to see this, not at all.

**They walked as quickly as they dared, past more windows sparkling with multicolored lights, the outlines of Christmas trees dark through the curtains.**

**"How are we going to find Bathilda's house?" asked Hermione, who was shivering a little and kept glancing back over her shoulder. "Harry? What do you think? Harry?"**

**She tugged at this arm, but Harry was not paying attention. He was looking toward the dark mass that stood at the very end of this row of houses. Next moment he sped up, dragging Hermione along with him, she slipped a little on the ice.**

A lot of people looked confused, so James cleared it up. His voice sounding a little weak "That's the way to our house." A few eyes widened. They knew what Harry had saw now.

**"Harry -"**

**"Look... Look at it, Hermione..."**

**"I don't... oh!"**

**He could see it; the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily.**

Minerva nodded, she knew it would have.

** The hedge had grown wild in the sixteen years since Hagrid had taken Harry from the rubble that lay scattered amongst the waist-high grass. Most of the cottage was still standing, though entirely covered in the dark ivy and snow, but the right side of the top floor had been blown apart; that, Harry was sure, was where the curse had backfired. He and Hermione stood at the gate, gazing up at the wreck of what must once have been a cottage just like those that flanked it.**

A lot of people looked upset again, James was shocked at what a state the house was in. Why had no one ever rebuilt it? Maybe they thought it was cursed land. He didn't know what to think.

**"I wonder why nobody's ever rebuilt it?" whispered Hermione.**

**"Maybe you can't rebuild it?" Harry replied. "Maybe it's like the injuries from Dark Magic and you can't repair the damage?"**

A few frowned looking a little curious but never thought into it too much.

**He slipped a hand from beneath the Cloak and grasped the snowy and thickly rusted gate, not wishing to open it, but simply so he'd some part of the house.**

**"You're not going to go inside? It looks unsafe, it might - oh, Harry, look!"**

**His touch on the gate seemed to have done it. A sign had risen out of the ground in front of them, up thorough the tangles of nettles and weeds, like some bizarre, fast-growing flower, and in golden letters upon the wood it said:**

**On this spot, on this night of 31 October 1981, Lily and James Potter lost their lives. Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard ever to have survived the Killing Curse. This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family.**

A lot of people smiled and some gasped. That was beautiful and unexpected. They wondered who actually put the sign up in the first place but they didn't really care they were just very thankful to whoever it was. Lily and James's eyes were wide. They were famous too, not just their son. They had known but had never really paid any attention to it. But now they did. They now understood how much them and their son was to the rest of the wizarding world. Harry much more than them, but still they were involved in it too.

**And all around these neatly lettered words, scribbles had been added by other witches and wizards who had come to see the place where the Boy Who Lived had escaped. Some had merely signed their names in Everlasting Ink; others had carved their initials into the wood, still others had left messages. The most recent of these, shining brightly over sixteen years' worth of magical graffiti, all said similar things.**

**Good luck, Harry, wherever you are.**

**If you read this, Harry, we're all behind you!**

**Long live Harry Potter.**

"That's brilliant" Frank muttered to Alice who smiled. She agreed. That was a real confident booster for Harry now. They had all forgotten about what Hermione had said about someone watching. Well everyone expect Moody.

**"They shouldn't have written on the sign!" said Hermione, indignant.**

**But Harry beamed at her.**

**"It's brilliant. I'm glad they did. I..."**

"Exactly Harry" James beamed.

**He broke off. A heavily muffled figure was hobbling up the lane toward them, silhouetted by the bright lights in the distant square. Harry thought, though it was hard to judge, that the figure was a woman. She was moving slowly, possibly frightened of slipping on the snowy ground. Her stoop, her stoutness, her shuffling gait all gave an impression of extreme age. They watched in silence as she drew nearer. Harry was waiting to see whether she would turn into any of the cottages she was passing, but he knew instinctively that she would not. At last she came to a halt a few yards from them and simply stood there in the middle of the frozen road, facing them.**

Everyone now suddenly remembered, and forgot about the house. This didn't sound right, even though it's just an old woman.

**He did not need Hermione's pinch to his arm. There was next to no chance that this woman was a Muggle: She was standing there gazing at a house that ought to have been completely invisible to her, if she was not a witch. Even assuming that she was a witch, however, it was odd behavior to come out on a night this cold, simply to look at an old ruin. **

Everyone nodded, yes they thought so too.

**By all the rules of normal magic, meanwhile, she ought not to be able to see Hermione and him at all. Nevertheless, Harry had the strangest feeling that she knew that they were there, and also who they were. Just as he had reached this uneasy conclusion, she raised a gloved hand and beckoned.**

**Hermione moved closer to him under the Cloak, her arm pressed against his.**

"How can she see them?" Lily asked sounding very wary.

**"How does she know?"**

**He shook his head. The woman beckoned again, more vigorously. Harry could think of many reasons not to obey the summons, and yet his suspicions about her identity were growing stronger every moment that they stood facing each other in the deserted street.**

**Was it possible that she had been waiting for them all these long months? That Dumbledore had told her to wait, and that Harry would come in the end? Was it not likely that it was she who had moved in the shadows in the graveyard and had followed them to this spot? Even her ability to sense them suggested some Dumbledore-ish power that he had never encountered before.**

Dumbledore shook his head very slowly. That sounded very unlikely, but he really hoped it was true. He didn't want this to be a pointless journey or even worse a dangerous one.

**Finally Harry spoke, causing Hermione to gasp and jump.**

**"Are you Bathilda?"**

**The muffled figure nodded and beckoned again.**

"That doesn't sound like her?" Aberforth added slowly "Usually she wouldn't shut up" He was very suspicious of this person, and now so was everyone else.

**Beneath the Cloak Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Harry raised his eyebrows; Hermione gave a tiny, nervous nod.**

"No" Moody groaned to himself annoyed and paranoid.

**They stepped toward the woman and , at once, she turned and hobbled off back the way they had come. Leading them past several houses, she turned in at a gate. They followed her up the front path through a garden nearly as overgrown as the one they had just left. She fumbled for a moment with a key at the front door, then opened it and stepped back to let them pass.**

"But she's a witch? Couldn't she use her wand?" Lily sqeaked, something was defiantly now right and then Dumbledore confirmed it.

"Yes, which proves, this is not Bathilda, or if it is, something not right, is going on here."

**She smelled bad, or perhaps it was her house; Harry wrinkled his nose as they sidled past her and pulled off the Cloak. Now that he was beside her, he realized how tiny she was; bowed down with age, she came barely level with his chest. She closed the door behind them, her knuckles blue and mottled against the peeling paint, then turned and peered into Harry's face. Her eyes were thick with cataracts and sunken into folds of transparent skin, and her whole face was dotted with broken veins and liver spots.**

A few people wrinkled their faces in disgust. That sounded like a horrible description.

** He wondered whether she could make him out at all; even if she could, it was the balding Muggle whose identity he had stolen that she would see.**

"That doesn't mean, she doesn't know you" Moody growled.

**The odor of old age, of dust, of unwashed clothes and stale food intensified as the unwound a moth-eaten black shawl, revealing a head of scant white hair through which the scalp showed clearly.**

**"Bathilda?" Harry repeated.**

**She nodded again. Harry became aware of the locket against his skin; the thing inside it that sometimes ticked or beat had woken; he could feel it pulsing through the cold gold. Did it know, could it sense, that the thing that would destroy it was near?**

A lot of people looking curious but doubtful. Most of all Dumbledore. He had never heard of a Horcrux acting like this.

**Bathilda shuffled past them, pushing Hermione aside as though she had not seen her, and vanished into what seemed to be a sitting room.**

**"Harry, I'm not sure about this," breathed Hermione.**

**"Look at the size of her, I think we could overpower her if we had to," said Harry. **

"Harry, you of all people should know size never matters." Alice said quietly but clearly and everyone nodded.

**"Listen, I should have told you, I knew she wasn't all there. Muriel called her 'gaga.'"**

**"Come!" called Bathilda from the next room.**

**Hermione jumped and clutched Harry's arm.**

Remus looked distracted "Why is she so jumpy."

**"It's okay," said Harry reassuringly, and he led the way into the sitting room.**

**Bathilda was tottering around the place lighting candles, but it was still very dark, not to mention extremely dirty. Thick dust crunched beneath their feet, and Harry's nose detected, underneath the dank and mildewed smell, something worse, like meat gone bad. He wondered when was the last time anyone had been inside Bathilda's house to check whether she was coping. She seemed to have forgotten that she could do magic, too, for she lit the candles clumsily by hand, her trailing lace cuff in constant danger of catching fire.**

"Get out of there" James, Aberforth, Sirius and Moody all snapped.

**"Let me do that," offered Harry, and he took the matches from her. She stood watching him as he finished lighting the candle stubs that stood on saucers around the room, perched precariously on stacks of books and on side tables crammed with cracked and moldy cups.**

**The last surface on which Harry spotted a candle was a bow-fronted chest of drawers on which there stood a large number of photographs. When the flame danced into life, its reflection wavered on their dusty glass and silver. He saw a few tiny movements from the pictures. As Bathilda fumbled with logs for the fire, he muttered "Tergeo": The dust vanished from the photographs, and he saw at once that half a dozen were missing from the largest and most ornate frames. He wondered whether Bathilda or somebody else had removed them. Then the sight of a photograph near the back of the collection caught his eye, and he snatched it up.**

**It was the golden-haired, merry-faced thief, the young man who had perched on Gregorovitch's windowsill, smiling lazily up at Harry out of the silver frame. And it came to Harry instantly where he had seen the boy before: in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, arm in arm with the teenage Dumbledore, and that must be where all the missing photographs were: in Rita's book.**

Everyone automatically turned to Dumbledore, they knew that he knew the thief, but they didn't know how close they were or even who it was. They also didn't know how Bathilda knew the boy, or man now.

**"Mrs. - Miss - Bagshot?" he said, and his voice shook slightly. "Who is this?"**

**Bathilda was standing in the middle of the room watching Hermione light the fire for her.**

**"Miss Bagshot?" Harry repeated, and he advanced with the picture in his hands as the flames burst into life in the fireplace. Bathilda looked up at his voice, and the Horcrux beat faster upon his chest.**

**"Who is this person?" Harry asked her, pushing the picture forward.**

**She peered at it solemnly, then up at Harry.**

**"Do you know who this is?" he repeated in a much slower and louder voice than usual. "This man? Do you know him? What's he called?"**

"Why isn't she talking?" Frank asked annoyed. Why wasn't she talking, he was uneasy but he was also very frustrated.

**Bathilda merely looked vague. Harry felt an awful frustration. How had Rita Skeeter unlocked Bathilda's memories?**

**"Who is this man?" he repeated loudly.**

Dumbledore wanted to stop reading, he knew who that man was and it was killing him, he didn't know what was going to happen when everyone found out the truth, he didn't want them too, but he knew it was going to happen.

**"Harry, what are you doing?" asked Hermione.**

**"This picture. Hermione, it's the thief, the thief who stole from Gregorovitch! Please!" he said to Bathilda. "Who is this?"**

**But she only stared at him.**

Everyone was now looking annoyed but also a little scared. Something bad was going to happen. They just knew it.

**"Why did you ask us to come with you, Mrs. - Miss - Bagshot?" asked Hermione, raising her own voice. "Was there something you wanted to tell us?"**

**Giving no sign that she had heard Hermione, Bathilda now shuffled a few steps closer to Harry. With a little jerk of her head she looked back into the hall.**

**"You want us to leave?" he asked.**

A lot of people nodded, that was the best thing to do.

**She repeated the gesture, this time pointing firstly at him, then at herself, then at the ceiling.**

**"Oh, right... Hermione, I think she wants me to go upstairs with her."**

Some shared looks, the Dumbledore's glanced at each other, this wasn't Bethilda, and they knew it. Something was definitely wrong.

**"All right," said Hermione, "let's go."**

**But when Hermione moved, Bathilda shook her head with surprising vigor, once more pointing first at Harry, then to herself.**

**"She wants me to go with her, alone."**

"No" this time it was Molly, Lily, Alice and Marlene that shouted.

**"Why?" asked Hermione, and her voice rang out sharp and clear in the candlelit room, the old lady shook her head a little at the loud noise.**

**"Maybe Dumbledore told her to give the sword to me, and only to me?"**

**"Do you really think she knows who you are?"**

Everyone nodded, _She does. But how?_

**"Yes," said Harry, looking down into the milky eyes fixed upon his own. "I think she does."**

**"Well, okay then, but be quick, Harry."**

"No Hermione" Remus nearly yelled. He hadn't expected her to let him go.

**"Lead the way," Harry told Bathilda.**

**She seemed to understand, because she shuffled around him toward the door. Harry glanced back at Hermione with a reassuring smile, but he was not sure she had seen it; she stood hugging herself in the midst of the candlelit squalor, looking toward the bookcase. As Harry walked out of the room, unseen by both Hermione and Bathilda, he slipped the silver-framed photograph of the unknown thief inside his jacket.**

Aberforth lips twitch._What you going to do when you find out about my big brothers past?_

**The stairs were steep and narrow; Harry was half tempted to place his hands on stout Bathilda's backside to ensure that she did not topple over backward on top of him, which seemed only too likely. Slowly, wheezing a little, she climbed to the upper landing, turned immediately right, and led him into a low-ceilinged bedroom.**

**It was pitch-black and smelled horrible: Harry had just made out a chamber pot protruding from under the bed before Bathilda closed the door and even that was swallowed by the darkness.**

Everyone looked concerned and a little terrified.

**"Lumos," said Harry, and his wand ignited. He gave a start: Bathilda had moved close to him in those few seconds of darkness, and he had not heard her approach.**

**"You are Potter?" she whispered.**

"Why is she talking now?" Alice asked cautious.

**"Yes, I am."**

**She nodded slowly, solemnly. Harry felt the Horcrux beating fast, faster than his own heart; It was an unpleasant, agitating sensation.**

Everyone looked fully terrified now, What was about to happen. Moody's eyes were narrowed. He didn't understand any of this, and by the looks of it. Neither did Dumbledore.

**"Have you got anything for me?" Harry asked, but she seemed distracted by his lit wand-tip.**

**"Have you got anything for me?" he repeated.**

**Then she closed her eyes and several things happened at once: Harry's scar prickled painfully; the Horcrux twitched so that the front of his sweater actually moved; the dark, fetid room dissolved momentarily. He felt a leap of joy and spoke in a high, cold voice: Hold him!**

"No" nearly everyone in the room yelled. Voldemort. They knew something terrible was about to happen by why. Why had this happened? How had this happened?

**Harry swayed where he stood: The dark, foul-smelling room seemed to close around him again; he did not know what had just happened.**

**"Have you got anything for me?" he asked for a third time, much louder.**

"Just run, Harry" Sirius yelled, looking terrified.

**"Over here," she whispered, pointing to the corner. Harry raised his wand and saw the outline of a cluttered dressing table beneath the curtained window.**

**This time she did not lead him. Harry edged between her and the unmade bed, his wand raised. He did not want to look away from her.**

Moody nodded.

**"What is it?" he asked as he reached the dressing table, which was heaped high with what looked and smelled like dirty laundry.**

**"There," she said, pointing at the shapeless mass.**

**And in the instant that he looked away, his eyes taking the tangled mess for a sword hilt, a ruby, she moved weirdly: He saw it out of the corner of his eye; panic made him turn and horror paralyzed him as he saw the old body collapsing and the great snake pouring from the place where her neck had been.**

Everyone either sat frozen or screamed, he was using a dead body. Bathilda was a dead body. That was totally wrong, and disgusting in so many ways. Everyone exchanged looks. They were terrified. There was no way out for him, none. Voldemort would be there soon.

**The snake struck as he raised his wand: The force of the bite to his forearm sent the wand spinning up toward the ceiling; its light swung dizzyingly around the room and was extinguished; Then a powerful blow from the tail to his midriff knocked the breath out of him. He fell backward onto the dressing table, into the mound of filthy clothing –**

"No" Lily mouthed. Unable to talk aloud.

**He rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding the snake's tail, which thrashed down upon the table where he had been a second earlier. Fragments of the glass surface rained upon him as he hit the floor. From below he heard Hermione call, "Harry?"**

**He could not get enough breath into his lungs to call back: Then a heavy smooth mass smashed him to the floor and he felt it slide over him, powerful, muscular-**

**"No!" he gasped, pinned to the floor.**

**"Yes," whispered the voice. "Yesss... hold you... hold you..."**

"Come on Harry, you can do this." Sirius muttered, looking out of his mind. "Come on Harry."

**"Accio... Accio Wand..."**

**But nothing happened and he needed his hands to try to force the snake from him as it coiled itself around his torso, squeezing the air from him, pressing the Horcrux hard into his chest, a circle of ice that throbbed with life, inches from his own frantic heart, and his brain was flooding with cold, white light, all thought obliterated, his own breath drowned, distant footsteps, everything going...**

**A metal heart was banging outside his chest, and now he was flying, flying with triumph in his heart, without need of broomstick or thestral...**

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed, how could Harry feel the Horcrux like that, it's never been described like a 'heart' from anyone other than Harry.

**He was abruptly awake in the sour-smelling darkness; Nagini had released him. He scrambled up and saw the snake outlined against the landing light: It struck, and Hermione dived aside with a shriek; her deflected curse hit the curtained window, which shattered. Frozen air filled the room as Harry ducked to avoid another shower of broken glass and his foot slipped on a pencil-like something - his wand -**

Nearly everyone groaned.

**He bent and snatched it up, but now the room was full of the snake, its tail thrashing; Hermione was nowhere to be seen and for a moment Harry thought the worst, but then there was a loud bang and a flash of red light, and the snake flew into the air, smacking Harry hard in the face as it went, coil after heavy coil rising up to the ceiling. Harry raised his wand, but as he did so, his scar seared more painfully, more powerfully than it had done in years.**

"He's there." Sirius muttered feebly.

Lily was grabbing James hand as if it was life support. But James was doing the same back so none of them noticed. Too concerned about the son, they knew nearly nothing about personally.

Minerva and Dumbledore shared a glance this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

Moody was leaning back in his chair. His expression unreadable.

Marlene, Elphias, Dorcas and Dedalus were all looking horrified. This was something so much more than any of them had ever dealt with.

Aberforth wasn't talking, or doing anything at all. Neither was Arthur or Molly they were just looked a little sick.

**"He's coming! Hermione, he's coming!"**

**As he yelled the snake fell, hissing wildly. Everything was chaos: It smashed shelves from the wall, and splintered china flew everywhere as Harry jumped over the bed and seized the dark shape he knew to be Hermione -**

Moody nodded a little but his expression still unreadable.

**She shrieked with pain as he pulled her back across the bed: The snake reared again, but Harry knew that worse than the snake was coming, was perhaps already at the gate, his head was going to split open with the pain from his scar -**

"I don't think I'd be able to handle that pain" Alice whispered, she really didn't know what else to say or how to act. Frank felt the same way.

**The snake lunged as he took a running leap, dragging Hermione with him; as it struck, Hermione screamed, "Confringo!" and her spell flew around the room, exploding the wardrobe mirror and ricocheting back at them, bouncing from floor to ceiling; Harry felt the heat of it sear the back of his hand. Glass cut his cheek as, pulling Hermione with him, he leapt from bed to broken dressing table and then straight out of the smashed window into nothingness, her scream reverberating through the night as they twisted in midair...**

A lot of people were still tense but a humerless laugh filled the air, it was a laugh of relief and they looked over to see Remus laughing his head off. He gasped "Sorry, but boy, was that close." They all nodded. Yeah that was very close.

**And then his scar burst open and he was Voldemort and he was running across the fetid bedroom, his long white hands clutching at the windowsill as he glimpsed the bald man and the little woman twist and vanish, and he screamed with rage, a scream that mingled with the girl's, that echoed across the dark gardens over the church bells ringing in Christmas Day...**

**_And his scream was Harry's scream, his pain was Harry's pain... that it could happen here, where it had happened before... here, within sight of that house where he had come so close to knowing what it was to die... to die... the pain was so terrible... ripped from his body... But if he had no body, why did his head hurt so badly; if he was dead, how cold he feel so unbearably, didn't pain cease with death, didn't it go..._**

"He's in his head." Lily muttered. She had been relieved, now that was gone again. James was rubbing her back, but he had went pale aswell.

**_The night wet and windy, two children dressed as pumpkins waddling across the square and the shop windows covered in paper spiders, all the tawdry Muggle trappings of a world in which they did not believe..._**

"Wait? Isn't it Christmas?" Siruis asked confused

"Wasn't it Halloween when you guys …" Remus cut off and stared at Lily and James horrified. Both of them caught on at the same moment and gasped. This was not good. They didn't want Harry to see this. No.

Everyone's eyes were on them now. They all understood. Sirius looked like he might have a breakdown. He was rocking back and forth a little bit, But not too noticeable. _No, please, please no. I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear James leave. _Sirius thought a few times. James placed a hand on Sirius's shoulder but his friend was too much in thought to notice. But Remus seemed to calm a little when Lily done it to him.

**_And he was gliding along, that sense of purpose and power and rightness in him that he always knew on these occasions... Not anger... that was for weaker souls than he... but triumph, yes... He had waited for this, he had hoped for it..._**

No one spoke. They didn't have anything to say, none of them wanted to hear this.

**_"Nice costume, mister!"_**

**_He saw the small boy's smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his pained face. Then the child turned and ran away... Beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand... One simple movement and the child would never reach his mother... _**

All the woman, and even some of the men in the room yelled "No" there was already about to be two deaths, they didn't need anymore.

**_but unnecessary, quite unnecessary..._**

"I didn't think he knew what was necessary, and what wasn't" Sirius growled a little.

**_And along a new and darker street he moved, and now his destination was in sight at last, the Fidelius Charm broken, though they did not know it yet... _**

A lot of people flinched. But the most noticeable the two men sitting at either side of the Potters.

**_And he made less noise than the dead leaves slithering along the pavement as he drew level with the dark hedge, and steered over it..._**

**_They had not drawn the curtains; he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas. The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist..._**

Sirius growled "How dare he see their last moments."

Everyone else growled or narrowed their eyes. That was a moment between family, he didn't deserve to see it, it wasn't for him. The last moments between this little family, precious and taken away in minutes. They were just so young.

**_A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he cold not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to the mother. _**

Lily's breathing quickened a little. She didn't want to hear about her death, but most of all, she didn't want to about James's. And she knew he felt the same.

**He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning...**

James nearly banged his head on the table for being so stupid. And Moody looked like he wanted to comment, but knew now wasn't the time. But they should always be ready. Because now, the man was dead. Because he didn't have his wand with him.

**_The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open..._**

**_He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It was easy, too easy, he had not even picked up his wand..._**

"Dammit" James yelled, hitting his hand off the table hard.

Lily took his hand and smiled "It wouldn't have done anything, anyway." But James still didn't look any better.

**_"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"_**

Sirius and Remus both shared a look and smiled sadly. That sounded so like James.

**_Hold him off, without a wand in his hand! ... He laughed before casting the curse…_**

Everyone tensed. They didn't want to hear this. Dumbledore even stopped. He didn't know if he should continue. He didn't want to say the next words. They seemed too real, too true. To think, this would happen in a few months time.

"Please, just get it over with" James said "This isn't even the bit I'm dreading." He added to himself but everyone heard him, and they knew he was right, they were dreading more than just James death too.

**_"Avada Kedavra!"_**

Sirius started crying like the words were causing his physical pain, as if it wouldn't stop. His whole body was bent over and he was crying so hard. He grab James shoulder and was now crying into it. Lily was looking just as much a mess. Remus looked like he could breath, tears falling down his face. He was gasping for air. The only ones in the room not crying were Aberforth and Moody. Not because they didn't care, but because they just weren't the type to cry. Well Aberforth would cry over Ariana of course and Albus when he died. But he didn't know James that well. Moody was hurt aswell. He really liked this young man. He was funny and also knew how to get his work done and he was good for the Order. But Moody wasn't one to cry. James wasn't crying for himself. He was crying for Harry, and Lily. He left them, left Lily to die.

**_The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glow like lighting rods, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut..._**

Sirius was muttering something but no one could make out the words over the sobs and over Sirius own crys.

**_He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear... _**

A lot of people who were now trying to stop the tears looked a little confused. Wasn't Voldemort planning on killing her. Dumbledore looked thoughtful. Why was Tom planning on letting Lily live, she was Muggle-born. Which he hated also she was in the way. Dumbledore thought he would kill her, just like James. Who was pure-blood. Lily was still crying but everyone could make out the "Why?" in the sentence's she tried to speak though her sobs.

**_He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in... She had no wand upon her either... How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments..._**

Sirius, Remus and James shared a look. This was obviously Peter.

**_He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand... and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead..._**

James looked pained. Biting his lip, hoping to keep the tears in. He didn't want to hear about the love of his life dying, his Lily dying. It was too much.

**_"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"_**

**_"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now."_**

James croaked out "Why is he letting her live? Why isn't he just killing her?" Of course he wanted her to live, but it didn't make sense, Why wasn't Voldemort killing her. No one knew. They all looked just as confused. Why was Lily given a choice.

**_"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -"_**

James let out a small mumble. No, he didn't want to hear his wife talk about this. Lily was patting his arm, she was still crying but she knew he need comfort just now.

**_"This is my last warning -"_**

"Why do you even have a warning? I thought he just killed when he wanted to. Just kill for the sake of it." Aberforth asked. No one answered. They thought that too.

**_"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy... Not Harry! Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything..."_**

James was now full on crying now. He let tears fall from his eyes. He was in too much pain to not let them. But then he looked at the woman beside him, she's still hear. She's still here for now.

**_"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"_**

"She's not going to" Molly sobbed in to Arthur's shirt. While he patted her hair.

**_He could have forced her away from the crib, but it seemed more prudent to finish them all..._**

**_The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. _**

James and Lily were not looking at each other but into each other's shoulders. Unaware of everyone around them. James kept kissing her hair. And Lily was messing his hair with her hands. Not wanting to let him go. He had pulled her onto his lap. Her feet were on Sirius's lap but Sirius didn't care, in fact he cried onto her legs.

**_The child had not cried all this time. He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder's face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing -_**

"Not this time baby. Not this time." Lily sobbed harder. Molly was looking at the girl. The poor girl lost everything, or was going to lose everything. She lost her husband, child and her life.

**_He pointed the wand very carefully into the boy's face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger._**

Sirius was still shaking, some thought it was more of rage now. It was different now. He just wanted to kill this bastard. The bastard that kill his best friends, turned one of his other _best_ friends in to a traitor, and made his godson an orphan. He just wanted to kill someone or something right now.

**_The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage -_**

Dumbledore had to take a few deep breaths until he finally said the words he hated so much.

**_"Avada Kedavra!"_**

Nearly everyone flinched. How could someone do that to a child. A defenseless child. They knew if anyone could, it would be Voldemort. He would do anything to anyone if it meant he wasn't in danger. Even a child.

**_And then he broke. He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped screaming, but far away... far away..._**

**"No," he moaned.**

A few people let out breaths. "Come on Harry, wake up." Sirius said a few times.

**The snake rustled on the filthy, cluttered floor, and he had killed the boy, and yet he was the boy...**

"I don't even know what that means, or how." Minerva said still shaking a little with sobs "But it's definitely not right." Dumbledore nodded. He had a suspicion what it meant. But he didn't want it to be true, and if it was he couldn't see how the boy would make it out alive.

**"No..."**

**_And now he stood at the broken window of Bathilda's house, immersed in memories of his greatest loss, and at his feet the great snake slithered over broken china and glass... He looked down and saw something... something incredible..._**

**"No..."**

**"Harry, it's all right, you're all right!"**

Lily smiled though her tears, that's it Hermione. Please comfort him for me.

**_He stooped down and picked up the smashed photograph. There he was, the unknown thief, the thief he was seeking..._**

A few gasps.

**"No... I dropped it... I dropped it..."**

**"Harry, it's okay, wake up, wake up!"**

**He was Harry... Harry, not Voldemort... and the thing that was rustling was not a snake... He opened his eyes.**

**"Harry," Hermione whispered. "Do you feel all - all right?"**

**"Yes," he lied.**

**He was in the tent, lying on one of the lower bunks beneath a heap of blankets. He could tell that it was almost dawn by the stillness and quality of the cold, flat light beyond the canvas ceiling. He was drenched in sweat; he could feel it on the sheets and blankets.**

**"We got away."**

**"Yes," said Hermione. "I had to use a Hover Charm to get you into your bunk. I couldn't lift you. You've been... Well, you haven't been quite..."**

"Thank you, thank you so much." Lily whispered in to her husbands chest.

**There were purple shadows under her brown eyes and he noticed a small sponge in her hand: She had been wiping his face.**

**"You've been ill," she finished. "Quite ill."**

**"How long ago did we leave?"**

**"Hours ago. It's nearly morning."**

A few gasped, they didn't expect that, only a few minutes maybe. An hour at the most.

**"And I've been... what, unconscious?"**

**"Not exactly," said Hermione uncomfortably. "You've been shouting and moaning and... things," she added in a tone that made Harry feel uneasy. What had he done? Screamed curses like Voldemort, cried like the baby in the crib?**

A few people bit their lips, not knowing what to expect.

**"I couldn't get the Horcrux off you," Hermione said, and he knew she wanted to change the subject. "It was stuck, stuck to your chest. You've got a mark; I'm sorry, I had to use a Severing Charm to get it away. The snake hit you too, but I've cleaned the wound and put some dittany on it..."**

_Thank you Hermione. You're a life saver. _Lily thought again.

**He pulled the sweaty T-shirt he was wearing away from himself and looked down. There was a scarlet oval over his heart where the locket had burned him. He could also see the half healed puncture marks to his forearm.**

**"Where've you put the Horcrux?"**

**"In my bag. I think we should keep it off for a while."**

Molly and Lily nodded whole-heartily.

**He lay back on his pillows and looked into her pinched gray face.**

**"We shouldn't have gone to Godric's Hollow. It's my fault, it's all my fault. Hermione, I'm sorry."**

**"It's not you fault. I wanted to go too; I really thought Dumbledore might have left the sword there for you."**

A lot of people sighed. It all went wrong.

**"Yeah, well... we got that wrong, didn't we?"**

**"What happened, Harry? What happened when she took you upstairs? Was the snake hiding somewhere? Did it just come out and kill her and attack you?"**

**"No." he said. "She was the snake... or the snake was her... all along."**

**"W-what?"**

**He closed his eyes. He could still smell Bathilda's house on him; it made the whole thing horribly vivid.**

A few people shuddered. They couldn't imagine what it actually looked like.

**"Bathilda must've been dead a while. The snake was... was inside her. You-Know-Who put it there in Godric's Hollow, to wait. You were right. He knew I'd go back."**

**"The snake was inside her?"**

**He opened his eyes again. Hermione looked revolted, nauseated.**

**"Lupin said there would be magic we'd never imagined." Harry said. "She didn't want to talk in front of you, because it was Parseltongue, all Parseltongue, and I didn't realize, but of course I could understand her. Once we were up in the room, the snake sent a message to You-Know-Who, I heard it happen inside my head, I felt him get excited, he said to keep me there... and then..."**

A lot of people gasped. They understood now. That was just terrible.

**He remembered the snake coming out of Bathilda's neck: Hermione did not need to know the details.**

"She'll be thankful" Sirius muttered to himself

**"...she changed, changed into the snake, and attacked."**

**He looked down at the puncture marks.**

**"It wasn't supposed to kill me, just keep me there till You-Know-Who came."**

**If he had only managed to kill the snake, it would have been worth it, all of it... Sick at heart, he sat up and threw back the covers.**

Lily looked alarmed "Harry. Rest now."

**"Harry, no, I'm sure you ought to rest!"**

**"You're the one who needs sleep. No offense, but you look terrible. I'm fine. I'll keep watch for a while. Where's my wand?"**

**She did not answer, she merely looked at him.**

James closed his eyes. Please don't let what he thought was true happen.

**"Where's my wand, Hermione?"**

**She was biting her lip, and tears swam in her eyes.**

"No" Remus muttered.

**"Harry..."**

**"Where's my wand?"**

**She reached down beside the bed and held it out to him.**

**The holly and phoenix wand was nearly severed in two. One fragile strand of phoenix feather kept both pieces hanging together. The wood had splintered apart completely. Harry took it into his hands as though it was a living thing that had suffered a terrible injury. He could not think properly: Everything was a blur of panic and fear. Then he held out the want to Hermione.**

Everyone groaned, this was just great.

**"Mend it. Please."**

**"Harry, I don't think, when it's broken like this -"**

**"Please, Hermione, try!"**

**"R-Reparo."**

**The dangling half of the wand resealed itself. Harry held it up.**

"It won't work." Lily bit her lip. This was one horrible thing after another.

**"Lumos!"**

**The wand sparked feebly, then went out. Harry pointed it at Hermione.**

**"Expelliarmus!"**

**Hermione's wand gave a little jerk, but did not leave her hand. The feeble attempt at magic was too much for Harry's wand, which split into two again. He stared at it, aghast, unable to take in what he was seeing... the wand that had survived so much...**

A lot of people nodded, they didn't know all it had survived but they knew enough.

**"Harry." Hermione whispered so quietly he could hardly hear her. "I'm so, so sorry. I think it was me. As we were leaving, you know, the snake was coming for us, and so I cast a Blasting Curse, and it rebounded everywhere, and it must have - must have hit -"**

"Dammit" Moody grunted to himself. This was not a good thing at all.

**"It was an accident." said Harry mechanically. He felt empty, stunned. "We'll - we'll find a way to repair it."**

**"Harry, I don't think we're going to be able to," said Hermione, the ears trickling down her face. "Remember... remember Ron? When he broke his wand, crashing the car? It was never the same again, he had to get a new one."**

**Harry thought of Ollivander, kidnapped and held hostage by Voldemort; of Gregorovitch, who was dead. How was he supposed to find himself a new wand?**

"You can't"

**"Well," he said, in a falsely matter-of-fact voice, "well, I'll just borrow yours for now, then. While I keep watch."**

**Her face glazed with tears, Hermione handed over her wand, and he left her sitting beside his bed, desiring nothing more than to get away from her.**

"It's most likely for the best Harry." Sirius sighed.


	26. The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

_Answered Reviews: _

**Pixietricker: ** **_The pain references, I don't always mean to say them/write them, it just comes natural when I write. I also think it makes what happens to the Longbottom's more tragic. Also I hate making the woman sound weak, but all the men in the room are all tough in J K Rowlings, story. Also not all the woman in the room have been viewed as tough in the real story. Some yes, but mostly Lily, and this is her son. She can't expect to be strong. All the men have cried to ... expect Moody._**

* * *

Everyone reflected on it for a minute or so. This wasn't a good things, to be honest this was so bad, it might not even get worse. They only had one wand in between them, they couldn't separately defend themselves if they need to.

**The sun was coming up; The pure, colorless vastness of the sky stretched over him, indifferent to him and his suffering. Harry sat down in the tent entrance and took a deep breath of clean air. Simply to be alive to watch the sun rise over the sparkling snowy hillside ought to have been the greatest treasure on earth, yet he could not appreciate it. His senses had been spiked by the calamity of losing his want. He looked out over a valley blanketed in snow, distant church bells chiming through the glittering silence.**

**Without realizing it, he was digging his fingers into his arms as if he were trying to resist physical pain. He had spilled his own blood more times than he could count; he had lost all bones in his right arm once; this journey had already given him scars to his chest and forearm to join those on his hand and forehead, but never, until this moment, had he felt himself to be fatally weakened, vulnerable, and naked, as though the best part of his magical power had been torn from him. **

"That must be tough" Frank said, everyone agreed.

"Wait, how had he lost all bones in his right arm?" Lily asked a little panicked. How can someone _lose_ bones. Everyone looked just as confused. Losing bones was not something that had happened to them.

**He knew exactly what Hermione would say if he expressed any of this. The wand is only as good as the wizard. But she was wrong, his case was different. She had not felt the wand spin like the needle of a compass and shoot golden flames at his enemy. He had lost the protection of the twin cores, and only now that it was gone did he realize how much he had been counting on it.**

"But he can fight without them, can't he?" James asked Dumbledore, he wanted reassurance. He didn't want to think of his son was weak and exposed now. Because his son was everyone but weak, but he might be exposed.

Dumbledore looked deep in thought. "I don't he can fight with it, to be honest" he didn't know how the twin cores could actually win a fight. But he guessed Harry liked his own wand better, it would be comforting to have something familiar.

**He pulled the pieces of the broken wand out of his pocket and, without looking at them, tucked them away in Hagrid's pouch around his neck. The pouch was now too full of broken and useless objects to take any more. Harry's hand brushed the old Snitch through the moleskin and for a moment he had to fight the temptation to pull it out and throw it away. Impenetrable, unhelpful, useless, like everything else Dumbledore had left behind -**

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. That snitch. There has to be some kind of different meaning to what Harry thought, it must be useful someway.

**And his fury at Dumbledore broke over him now like lava, scorching him inside, wiping out every other feeling. Out of sheer desperation they had talked themselves into believing that Godric's Hollow held answers, convinced themselves that they were supposed to go back, that it was all part of some secret path laid out for them by Dumbledore, but there was no map, no plan. **

_I'm sure there is Harry _Dumbledore cringed _You just have to wait and see_

**Dumbledore had left them to grope in the darkness, to wrestle with unknown and undreamed-of terrors, alone and unaided: Nothing was explained, nothing was given freely, they had no sword, and now, Harry had no wand. And he had dropped the photograph of the thief, and it would surely be easy now for Voldemort to find out who he was… Voldemort had all the information now...**

Aberforth sighed, he didn't know why Voldemort wanted Grindelwald, then he remembered they were both evil. Voldemort more than Gindelwald but they were still both evil.

**"Harry?"**

**Hermione looked frightened that he might curse her with her own wand. Her face streaked with tears, she crouched down beside him, two cups of tea trembling in her hands and something bulky under her arm.**

Molly and Remus sighed at that information.

**"Thanks," he said, taking one of the cups.**

**"Do you mind if I talk to you?"**

**"No," he said because he did not want to hurt her feelings.**

**"Harry, you wanted to know who that man in the picture was. Well... I've got the book."**

Aberforth's head turned to Albus so fast you could hear a crack. Here it was … everyone was about to find out. Dumbledore closed his eyes for what seemed like forever. Everyone was looking at each other curiously behind his closed lids, what could be this bad? What was coming up, why did Aberforth look conflicted, he didn't know whether to be happy people would find out the trust or upset he would need to read about that … friendship … that lost his sisters life.

**Timidly she pushed it onto his lap, a pristine copy of The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.**

**"Where - how -?"**

**"It was in Bathilda's sitting room, just lying there... This note was sticking out of the top of it."**

Sirius and James nearly smiled, they were curious who this person was and were too interested in the book, but when she said that they thought of each other, and themselves.

**Hermione read the few lines of spiky, acid-green writing aloud.**

**"'Dear Bally, Thanks for your help. Here's a copy of the book, hope you like it. You said everything, even if you don't remember it. Rita.' **

"That's so unfair." Minerva exclaimed. "That's against the law,"

"Well we knew she done it in a illegal anyway." Moody point out and she huffed. A lot of people were looking angry as well.

**I think it must have arrived while the real Bathilda was alive, but perhaps she wasn't in any fit state to read it?"**

**"No, she probably wasn't."**

**Harry looked down upon Dumbledore's face and experienced a surge of savage pleasure. Now he would know if all the things that Dumbledore had never thought it worth telling him, whether Dumbledore wanted him to or not.**

**"You're still really angry at me, aren't you?" said Hermione; he looked up to see fresh tears leaking out of her eyes, and knew that his anger must have shown in his face.**

**"No," he said quietly. "No, Hermione, I know it was an accident. You were trying to get us out of there alive, and you were incredible. I'd be dead if you hadn't been there to help me."**

Lily and James winced a little, they didn't want to think about what would happened if Hermione wasn't there.

**He tried to return her watery smile, then turned his attention to the book. Its spine was stiff; it had clearly never been opened before. He riffled through the pages, looking for photographs. He came across the one he sought almost at once, the young Dumbledore and his handsome companion, roaring with laughter at some long-forgotten joke. **

Dumbledore stopped at the words. "I can't read this bit. Who would like too?"

At first no one volunteered but then Arthur Weasley spoke up "I'll read, I guess." He didn't know what was so bad about this person. Who were they?

**Harry dropped his eyes to the caption.**

**Albus Dumbledore, shortly after his mother's death, With his friend Gellert Grindelwald.**

Everyone sat in shocked silence. They heard that wrong right? Arthur looked like a fish, his mouth opening and closing, trying to read the next words. Gellert Grindelwald friends? That was like Harry and Voldemort friends … No one wanted to look at Dumbledore, so they looked at Aberforth and he didn't look shocked at all, he looked a little amused if anything, but there was also pain in his expression. It near enough confirmed that was true.

The few that were brave enough to look a Dumbledore noticed his head bowed, they couldn't see his expression. He wasn't talking or doing anything. Just looking down.

Dumbledore didn't dare look up to them shocked faces, he knew people were looking at him, he could feel there gaze. But he didn't look up. He didn't want them to see his face.

**Harry gaped at the last word for several long moments. Grindelwald. His friend Grindelwald. He looked sideways at Hermione, who was still contemplating the name as though she could not believe her eyes. Slowly she looked up at Harry.**

**"Grindelwald!"**

**Ignoring the remainder of the photographs, Harry searched the pages around them for a recurrence of that fatal name. He soon discovered it and read greedily, but became lost: It was necessary to go farther back to make sense of it all, and eventually he found himself at the start of a chapter entitled "The Greater Good." Together, he and Hermione started to read:**

Dumbledore winced a little. He didn't need reminded of 'The Greater Good' he didn't know if he could handle it. He wanted to walk out of the room but the Gryffindor in him wouldn't allow it.

Everyone in the room knew that was Grindelwald's motto. They exchanged worried glances, they were curious but they didn't want to hear about this with Dumbledore here.

**Now approaching his eighteenth birthday, Dumbledore left Hogwarts in a blaze of glory - Head Boy, Prefect, Winner of the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting, British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot, Gold Medal-Winner for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo. Dumbledore intended, next, to take a Grand Tour with Elphias "Dogbreath" Doge, the dim-witted but devoted sidekick he had picked up at school.**

Elphias scowled at that. How dare she insult him, she was the dimwit. A few peoples lips twitch, at Elphias expression to that.

**The two young men were staying at the Leaky Cauldron in London, preparing to depart for Greece the following morning, when an owl arrived bearing news of Dumbledore's mother's death. "Dogbreath" Doge, who refused to be interviewed for this book, has given the public his own sentimental version of what happened next. He represents Kendra's death as a tragic blow, and Dumbledore's decision to give up his expedition as an act of noble self-sacrifice.**

"Damn right I refused" he muttered, he was not surprised he refused. It was none of her business.

**Certainly Dumbledore returned to Godric's Hollow at once, supposedly to "care" for his younger brother and sister. But how much care did he actually give them?**

Aberforth's expression hardened a little, but no one apart from Dumbledore knew why. And he still have his head down and never took notice in his brothers action. But his chest tightened a little.

**"He were a head case, that Aberforth," said Enid Smeek, whose family lived on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow at that time. **

Aberforth actually smirked at that, he had always hated Enid.

**"Ran wild. 'Course, with his mum and dad gone you'd have felt sorry for him, only he kept chucking goat dung at my head. I don't think Albus was fussed about him. I never saw them together, anyway."**

Everyone again exchanged looks, but the brothers didn't really care.

**So what was Albus doing, if not comforting his wild young brother? The answer, it seems, is ensuring the continued imprisonment of his sister. For though her first jailer had died, there was no change in the pitiful condition of Ariana Dumbledore. Her very existence continued to be known only to those few outsiders who, like "Dogbreath" Doge, could be counted upon to believe in the story of her "ill health."**

_It was ill health _Elphias, Aberforth and Albus all thought.

**Another such easily satisfied friend of the family was Bathilda Bagshot, the celebrated magical historian who has lived in Godric's Hollow for many years. Kendra, of course, had rebuffed Bathilda when she first attempted to welcome the family to the village. Several years later, however, the author sent an owl to Albus at Hogwarts, having been favorably impressed by his paper on trans-species transformation in Transfiguration Today. This initial contract led to acquaintance with the entire Dumbledore family. At the time of Kendra's death, Bathilda was the only person in Godric's Hollow who was on speaking terms with Dumbledore's mother.**

**Unfortunately, the brilliance that Bathilda exhibited earlier in her life has now dimmed. "The fire's lit, but the cauldron's empty," as Ivor Dillonsby put it to me, or, in Enid Smeek's slightly earthier phrase, "She's nutty as squirrel poo." Nevertheless, a combination of tried-and-tested reporting techniques enabled me to extract enough nuggets of hard fact to string together the whole scandalous story.**

**Like the rest of the Wizarding world, Bathilda puts Kendra's premature death down to a backfiring charm, a story repeated by Albus and Aberforth in later years. **

The brothers both nodded, no one had spoke outright expect Arthur who was reading.

**Bathilda also parrots the family line on Ariana, calling her "frail" and "delicate." On one subject, however, Bathilda is well worth the effort I put into procuring Veritaserum, for she, and she alone, knows the full story of the best-kept secret of Albus Dumbledore's life. **

_Veritaserum _most thought, it must be true but twisted then.

**Now revealed for the first time, it calls into question everything that his admirers believed of Dumbledore: his supposed hatred of the Dark Arts, his opposition into the oppression of Muggles, even his devotion to his own family.**

Dumbledore had lifted his head but his eyes were closed.

**The very same summer that Dumbledore went home to Godric's Hollow, now an orphan and head of the family, Bathilda Bagshot agreed to accept into her home her great-nephew, Gellert Grindelwald.**

"They're related" Lily gasped, who would have thought the famous historian would be related to one of the most evil people in history.

No one spoke because they didn't know, but it seems it was true. Dumbledore nodded a little but it went unnoticed.

**The name of Grindelwald is justly famous: In a list of Most Dangerous Dark Wizards of All Time, he would miss out on the top spot only because You- Know-Who arrived, a generation later, to steal his crown. As Grindelwald never extended his campaign of terror to Britain, however, the details of his rise to power are not widely known here.**

_Known enough _Moody thought, looking at Dumbledore closely. That was a big secret to keep, and it seemed Dumbledore would have kept it longer if his book wasn't found.

**Educated at Durmstrang, a school famous even then for its unfortunate tolerance of the Dark Arts, Grindelwald showed himself quite as precociously brilliant as Dumbledore. Rather than channel his abilities into the attainment of awards and prizes, however, Gellert Grindelwald devoted himself to other pursuits. At sixteen years old, even Durmstrang felt it could no longer turn a blind eye to the twisted experiments of Gellert Grindelwald, and he was expelled.**

A few people shook their heads, it must have been very bad if Grindelwald was expelled for Durmstang, a lot of Darks Arts take place there.

**Hitherto, all that has been known of Grindelwald's next movements is that he "traveled around for some months." It can now be revealed that Grindelwald chose to visit his great-aunt in Godric's Hollow, and that there, intensely shocking though it will be for many to hear it, he struck up a close friendship with none other than Albus Dumbledore.**

Everyone was still too shocked to talk. Sirius was staring at Dumbledore like he had never seen him before, Lily didn't even tell him off, because she was just as shocked. A lot of people were sitting with wide-eyes, even Elphias. He never knew this, but by the way the brothers were acting it was true. He just couldn't believe it, he wanted to deny it and tell everyone it was a pile of rubbish but he kept his mouth shut.

**"He seemed a charming boy to me," babbles Bathilda, "whatever he became later. Naturally I introduced him to poor Albus, who was missing the company of lads his own age. The boys took to each other at once."**

_This is so strange _most thought_. _They couldn't believe Dumbledore. Albus Dumbledore was ever friends with him.

**They certainly did. Bathilda shows me a letter, kept by her that Albus Dumbledore sent Gellert Grindelwald in the dead of night.**

Dumbledore stiffened. He didn't know what letter it was but if he was honest. No letter was good.

**"Yes, even after they'd spent all day in discussion - both such brilliant young boys, they got on like a cauldron on fire - I'd sometimes hear an owl tapping at Gellert's bedroom window, delivering a letter from Albus! An idea would have struck him and he had to let Gellert know immediately!"**

**And what ideas they were. Profoundly shocking though Albus Dumbledore's fans will find it, here are the thoughts of their seventeen-year-old hero, as relayed to his new best friend. (A copy of the original letter may be seen on page 463.)**

**Gellert -**

**Your point about Wizard dominance being FOR THE MUGGLES' OWN GOOD - this, I think, is the crucial point. Yes, we have been given power and yes, that power gives us the right to rule, but it also gives us responsibilities over the ruled. We must stress this point, it will be the foundation stone upon which we build. Where we are opposed, as we surely will be, this must be the basis of all our counterarguments. We seize control FOR THE GREATER GOOD. And from this it follows that where we meet resistance, we must use only the force that is necessary and no more. (This was your mistake at Durmstrang! But I do not complain, because if you had not been expelled, we would never have met.)**

**Albus**

Everyone started. "Wh-what?" Elphias gasped "That's just –" but he was cut off from Aberforth kicking him. "It's true, so shut it." He growled, and everyone was just sitting not knowing what to say or do. Everyone knew what Elphias was going to say, they were going to say it themselves. It was just shocking to think of Dumbledore like that, that wasn't the Dumbledore they knew. He was the opposite.

**Astonished and appalled though his many admirers will be, this letter constitutes the Statute of Secrecy and establishing Wizard rule over Muggles. What a blow for those who have always portrayed Dumbledore as the Muggle-borns' greatest champion! How hollow those speeches promoting Muggle rights seem in the light of this damning new evidence! How despicable does Albus Dumbledore appear, busy plotting his rise to power when he should have been mourning his mother and caring for his sister!**

Dumbledore had a tear rolling down his face, but no one noticed. Expect Aberforth and Moody who were both watching his every move. No one wanted to look at him or was too scared to.

Moody spoke up, making everyone jump "Everyone has a past, so let's just get on with it." Dumbledore sent him a grateful smile and he just nodded in acknowledgement.

**No doubt those determined to keep Dumbledore on his crumbling pedestal will bleat that he did not, after all, put his plans into action, that he must have suffered a change of heart, that he came to his senses. However, the truth seems altogether more shocking.**

**Barely two months into their great new friendship, Dumbledore and Grindelwald parted, never to see each other again until they met for their legendary duel (for more, see chapter 22). What caused this abrupt rupture? Had Dumbledore come to his senses? Had he told Grindelwald he wanted no more part in his plans? Alas, no.**

A lot of people looked curious and leaned forward.

**"It was poor little Ariana dying, I think, that did it," says Bathilda. "It came as an awful shock. Gellert was there in the house when it happened, and he came back to my house all of a dither, told me he wanted to go home the next day. Terribly distressed, you know. So I arranged a Portkey and that was the last I saw of him."**

"Of course he was" Aberforth spat sarcastically. _Of course he was terribly distressed … doubt it._ When everyone looked at him, they noticed his face was twisted in real hatred and fury. He looked at his brother and sighed heavily but the hate and fury never left, if anything it got worse. _Why … Albus that was your fault, why did you bring him in … why couldn't you just leave him be. _He thought is disgust.

**"Albus was beside himself at Ariana's death. It was so dreadful for those two brothers. They had lost everybody except for each other. No wonder tempers ran a little high. Aberforth blamed Albus, you know, as people will under these dreadful circumstances. But Aberforth always talked a little madly, poor boy. All the same, breaking Albus's nose at the funeral was not decent.**

On other situations, Aberforth would have laughed, but he was just filled with hatred just now. Hatred for Grindelwald and his brother.

** It would have destroyed Kendra to see her sons fighting like that, across her daughter's body. A shame Gellert could not have stayed for the funeral... He would have been a comfort to Albus, at least...**

_He would have been a comfort to me, I could punch both of them _Aberforth thought with satisfaction.

While Dumbledore thought the opposite _No, he really wouldn't be … it would have been worse_

**This dreadful coffin-side brawl, known only to those few who attended Ariana Dumbledore's funeral, raises several questions. Why exactly did Aberforth Dumbledore blame Albus for his sister's death? Was it, as "Batty" pretends, a mere effusion of grief? Or could there have been some more concrete reason for his fury? Grindelwald, expelled from Durmstrang for the near-fatal attacks upon fellow students, fled the country hours after the girl's death, and Albus (out of shame or fear?) never saw him again, not until forced to do so by the pleas of the Wizarding world.**

Dumbledore sighed _Both _

**Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life. However, there can be no doubt that Dumbledore delayed, for some five years of turmoil, fatalities, and disappearances, his attack upon Gellert Grindelwald. Was it lingering affection for the man or fear of exposure as his once best friend that caused Dumbledore to hesitate? Was it only reluctantly that Dumbledore set out to capture the man he was once so delighted he had met?**

A few were looking causious at Dumbledore, they wanted to ask them questions too but kept their mouth shut.

**And how did the mysterious Ariana die? Was she the inadvertent victim of some Dark rite? Did she stumble across something she ought not to have done, as the two young men sat practicing for their attempt at glory and domination? Is it possible that Ariana Dumbledore was the first person to die "for the greater good"?**

Dumbledore made a sound like a sob but when others looked at him he just looked like in pain.

**The chapter ended here and Harry looked up. Hermione had reached the bottom of the page before him. She tugged the book out of Harry's hands, looking a little alarmed by his expression, and closed it without looking at it, as though hiding something indecent.**

Dumbledore nodded, knowing it was just about to get worse. Harry was just going to hurt even more now. Dumbledore was going to have to hear Harry's thoughts now.

**"Harry -"**

**But he shook his head. Some inner certainty had crashed down inside him; it was exactly as he had felt after Ron left. He had trusted Dumbledore, believed him the embodiment of goodness and wisdom. All was ashes: How much more could he lose? Ron, Dumbledore, the phoenix wand...**

A lot of people sighed. The boy didn't deserve it.

**"Harry." She seemed to have heard his thoughts. "Listen to me. It - it doesn't make a very nice reading -"**

Sirius snorted, bring some attention to himself. _No it wasn't_

**"Yeah, you could say that -"**

**"- but don't forget, Harry, this is Rita Skeeter writing."**

**"You did read that letter to Grindelwald, didn't you?"**

**"Yes, I - I did." She hesitated, looking upset, cradling her tea in her cold hands. "I think that's the worst bit. I know Bathilda thought it was all just talk, but 'For the Greater Good' became Grindelwald's slogan, his justification for all the atrocities he committed later. And... from that... it looks like Dumbledore gave him the idea. They say 'For the Greater Good' was even carved over the entrance to Nurmengard."**

**"What's Nurmengard?"**

James moaned. If only Harry had grown up with him, he would know that, he would know all of it. But he didn't. Sirius rested a hand on his shoulder. "Not the time James" he whispered.

**"The prison Grindelwald had built to hold his opponents. He ended up in there himself, once Dumbledore had caught him. Anyway, it's - it's an awful thought that Dumbledore's ideas helped Grindelwald rise to power. But on the other hand, even Rita can't pretend that they knew each other for more than a few months one summer when they were both really young, and -"**

**"I thought you'd say that," said Harry. He did not want to let his anger spill out at her, but it was hard to keep his voice steady. "I thought you'd say 'They were young.' They were the same age as we are now. And here we are, risking our lives to fight the Dark Arts, and there he was, in a huddle with his new best friend, plotting their rise to power over the Muggles."**

Everyone looked at the book a little startled. They hadn't even thought about that. It seemed to be true, Harry was the very same age now as Dumbledore was then, both plotting for the opposite sides in that respect. It did also make them realize just how mature Harry and the others really are at this point. Much more than they had even thought about before. What had they all been doing when they were seventeen? Still at Hogwarts or fresh out, some only beginning their involvement in the Order and others still never having heard of it.

**His temper would not remain in check much longer: He stood up and walked around, trying to work some of it off.**

**"I'm not trying to defend what Dumbledore wrote," said Hermione. "All that 'right to rule' rubbish, it's 'Magic Is Might' all over again. But Harry, his mother had just died, he was stuck alone in the house -"**

**"Alone? He wasn't alone! He had his brother and sister for company, his Squib sister he was keeping locked up -"**

**"I don't believe it," said Hermione. She stood up too. "Whatever was wrong with that girl, I don't think she was a Squib. The Dumbledore we knew would never, ever have allowed -"**

Dumbledore bowed his head. _Thank you. _

**"The Dumbledore we thought we knew didn't want to conquer Muggles by force!" Harry shouted, his voice echoing across the empty hilltop, and several blackbirds rose into the air, squawking and spiraling against the pearly sky.**

Everyone nodded, the Dumbledore they knew wouldn't do that either.

**"He changed, Harry, he changed! It's as simple as that! Maybe he did believe these things when he was seventeen, but the whole of the rest of his life was devoted to fighting the Dark Arts! Dumbledore was the one who stopped Grindelwald, the one who always voted for Muggle protection and Muggle born rights, who fought You-Know-Who from the start, and who died trying to bring him down!"**

A lot of people sighed "Exactly Hermione" Emmeline said softly. That was true, everyone nodded. They weren't going to hold the Dumbledore responsible for what for what his teenage self done. It was obvious he was foolish.

**Rita's book lay on the ground between them, so that the face of Albus Dumbledore smiled dolefully at both.**

**"Harry, I'm sorry, but I think the real reason you're so angry is that Dumbledore never told you any of this himself."**

**"Maybe I am!" Harry bellowed, and he flung his arms over his head, hardly knowing whether he was trying to hold in his anger or protect himself from the weight of his own disillusionment. "Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don't expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I'm doing, trust me even though I don't trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!"**

Dumbledore shut his eyes. He didn't know what his future self would think if he heard that, it was obvious he cared for the boy. He knew his older self would be hurt. A lot.

James sighed and looked at Dumbledore for what felt like the first time in hours "I don't know what you're doing, or what's really going on. But I trust you. I trust you with my son, I don't know what was true there. But you're different now. And I really hope my son makes it out of this, I really hope you know what's right this time." Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgment, so did he.

**His voice cracked with the strain, and they stood looking at each other in the whiteness and emptiness, and Harry felt they were as insignificant as insects beneath that wide sky.**

**"He loved you," Hermione whispered. "I know he loved you."**

**Harry dropped his arms.**

**"I don't know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn't love, the mess he's left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me."**

That hurt Dumbledore, it was like piercing his heart. He wanted to defend himself, but he didn't want to talk. He didn't want to say anything to anyone. He just hoped Harry would see things different soon. He hoped Harry found out what his real intentions were.

**Harry picked up Hermione's wand, which he had dropped in the snow, and sat back down in the entrance of the tent.**

**"Thanks for the tea. I'll finish the watch. You get back in the warm." She hesitated, but recognized the dismissal. She picked up the book and then walked back past him into the tent, but as she did so, she brushed the top of his head lightly with her hand. He closed his eyes at her touch, and hated himself for wishing that what she said was true, that Dumbledore had really cared.**

_I think I do Harry, please don't doubt my love _Dumbledore thought to himself.

Everyone was sitting in silence. Until Aberforth let out a humorless laugh, when everyone looked at him suspiciously "Well looks like one of your biggest secrets are out now, big brother" No one answered to that. But Aberforth both knew the underlying message that no one else could pick out _Let's hope the biggest doesn't come out now._


	27. The Silver Doe

_Answered Reviews: _

**Pixietricker: ****_It's okay, I understand that. _**

**WhisperOfTheHeart925: ****_I know, I love writing about Aberforth and Dumbledore's reactions._**

* * *

Everyone just decided to keep reading a bit more, they hope Harry didn't think about Dumbledore too much, they didn't think they could stand it. Dumbledore took the book from Arthur and started reading again

**It was snowing by the time Hermione took over the watch at midnight. Harry's dreams were confused and disturbing. Nagini wove in and out of them, first through a wreath of Christmas roses. He woke repeatedly, panicky, convinced that somebody had called out to him in the distance, imagining that the wind whipping around the tent was footsteps or voices.**

Nearly everyone shared looks, they hoped he was just imagining it.

**Finally he got up in the darkness and joined Hermione, who was huddled in the entrance to the tent reading A History of Magic by the light of her wand. The snow was falling thickly, and she greeted with relief his suggestion of packing up early and moving on.**

"We'll move somewhere more sheltered," she agreed, shivering as she pulled on a sweatshirt over her pajamas. "I kept thinking I could hear people moving outside. I even though I saw somebody one or twice."

Everyone bit their lip. "So he didn't imagine it." Sirius said nervously.

"That's just bloody brilliant" James said sarcastically, his son didn't need something else to worry about now. Someone knew were they where. ****

Harry paused in the act of pulling on a jumper and glanced at the silent, motionless Sneakoscope on the table.

"I guess that's good … eh?" Dedalus suggested in a cheerful tone that made some glare at him. Now wasn't the time to be cheerful. ****

"I'm sure I imagined it," said Hermione, looking nervous. "The snow the dark, it plays tricks on your eyes... But perhaps we ought to Disapparate under the Invisibility Cloak, just in case?"

Moody nodded in approval.

**Half an hour later, with the tent packed, Harry wearing the Horcrux, and Hermione clutching the beaded bag, they Disapparated. The usual tightness engulfed them; Harry's feet parted company with the snowy ground, then slammed hard onto what felt like frozen earth covered in leaves.**

"Where are we?" he asked, peering around at the fresh mass of trees as Hermione opened the beaded bag and began tugging out the tent poles.

"The Forest of Dean," she said, "I came camping here once with my mum and dad."

Here too snow lay on the trees all around and it was bitterly cold, but they were at least protected from the wind. They spent most of the day inside the tent, huddled for warmth around the useful bright blue flames that Hermione was adept at producing, and which could be scooped up and carried in a jar. 

"At least they are warm," Lily muttered in a voice that suggested that there was nothing to be happy about.

**Harry felt as though he was recuperating from some brief but severe, an impression reinforced by Hermione's solicitousness. That afternoon fresh flakes drifted down upon them, so that even their sheltered clearing had a fresh dusting of powdery snow.**

After two nights of little sleep, Harry's senses seemed more alert than usual. Their escape from Godric's Hollow had been so narrow that Voldemort seemed somehow closer than before, more threatening. As darkness drove in again Harry refused Hermione's offer to keep watch and told her to go to bed.

"He's always been threatening" Remus growled, he didn't know how the escape made it clearer. From what they heard Voldemort had always been too threatening to Harry. ****

Harry moved an old cushion into the tent mouth and sat down, wearing all the sweaters he owned but even so, still shivery. The darkness deepened with the passing hours until it was virtually impenetrable. He was on the point of taking out the Marauder's Map, so as to watch Ginny's dot for a while, before he remembered that it was the Christmas holidays and that she would be back at the Burrow.

Molly, Lily and Alice all cooed. That was so cute. Sirius and Remus laughed because James used to do the same thing, when he was in the same building as Lily, never mind not even in the same country.****

Every tiny movement seemed magnified in the vastness of the forest. Harry knew that it must be full of living creatures, but he wished they would all remain still and silent so that he could separate their innocent scurryings and prowlings from noises that might proclaim other, sinister movements. He remembered the sound of a cloak slithering over dead leaves many years ago, and at once thought he heard it again before mentally shaking himself. Their protective enchantments had worked for weeks; why should they break now? And yet he could no throw off the feeling that something was different tonight.

"Why? Just why?" Minerva mumbled a few times. Why was it always something had to happen around Harry … always. ****

Several times he jerked upright, his neck aching because he had fallen asleep, slumped at an awkward angle against the side of the tent. The night reached such a depth of velvety blackness that he might have been suspended in limbo between Disapparation and Apparation. He had just held a hand in front of his face to see whether he could make out his fingers when it happened.

"Falling asleep on watch … that's careless. He could get himself killed doing that" Moody grunted annoyed, unaware of the parents paling a little at that. But Sirius growled at him and he just glared back at the man.****

A bright silver light appeared right ahead of him, moving through the trees. Whatever the source, it was moving soundlessly. The light seemed simply to drift toward him.

"Patronus?" Remus asked confused and curious. Why was a patronus be there? Who's patronus? Everyone looked confused.****

He jumped to his feet, his voice frozen in his throat, and raised Hermione's wand. He screwed up his eyes as the light became blinding, the trees in front of it pitch black in silhouette, and still the thing came closer...

And then the source of the light stepped out from behind an oak. It was a silver white doe, moon-bright and dazzling, picking her way over the ground, still silent, and leaving no hoofprints in the fine powdering of snow. She stepped toward him, her beautiful head with its wide, long-lashed eyes held high.

Lily gasped, and James, Remus and Sirius looked startled. No one understood what had them looking so … disbelieving.

"But how?" Lily asked her friends, and husband, who just looked bewildered. They didn't know either.

"Can you please explain what you are talking about?"Molly asked the group of friends, who all jumped when she talked. They had forgotten they were not alone.

Sirius sighed, looking completely confused "It's just that, a doe is Lily's patronus. We don't know anyone else who would have that? It sounds exactly like Lily's … but it can't be … I mean, she's –" he trailed off but everyone understood. Who's patronus was this.

Dumbledore was looking thoughtful. Who would have the same patronus as Lily Potter. He knew Patronus's changed when something _big_ happened. He also thought that Lily's death fit in that category, but who loved her or cared for her that much … someone really close to her. He knew it wasn't Remus, and Sirius was dead. Alice, her best friend from school, by the sounds of it, was also dead. So who was it? He was very suspicious. ****

Harry stared at the creature, filled with wonder, not at her strangeness, but her inexplicable familiarity.

Lily couldn't help but smile a little. That was nice to hear even if it wasn't her. But who else could it be. She knew it was impossible but she didn't want to believe otherwise.

** He felt that he had been waiting for her to come, but that he had forgotten, until this moment, that they had arranged to meet. His impulse to shout for Hermione, which had been so strong a moment ago, had gone. He knew, he would have staked his life on it, that she had come for him, and him alone.**

"Careful Potter. Don't be foolish now" Moody growled cautiously, he knew never to trust something like this. ****

They gazed at each other for several long moments and then she turned and walked away.

**"No," he said, and his voice was cracked with lack of use. "Come back!"**

She continued to step deliberately through the trees, and soon he brightness was striped by their thick black trunks. For one trembling second he hesitated. Caution murmured it could be a trick, a lure, a trap. But instinct, overwhelming instinct, told him that this was not Dark Magic. He set off in pursuit.

A few people groaned, but Lily smiled. James caught this, he didn't want her to get her hopes up. He knew for certain that it wasn't her … it couldn't be her.

"Lils, you do know it's not you. It could still be dangerous." He said trying to sound as gentle as possible. For a moment she just stared at him then she sighed

"I know, but if it's the same form as his mother's, it can't be Dark right? It's someone his side … my side." She smiled at him sadly, trying to get him to understand. He nodded hoping she was right.****

Snow crunched beneath his feet, but the doe made no noise as she passed through the trees, for she was nothing but light. Deeper and deeper into the forest she led him, and Harry walked quickly, sure that when she stopped, she would allow him to approach her properly. And then she would speak and the voice would tell him what he needed to know.

Dumbledore had a feeling it wouldn't talk. It would have talked before now. ****

At last she came to a halt. She turned her beautiful head toward him once more, and he broke into a run, a question burning in him, but as he opened his lips to ask it, she vanished.

Lily looked a little more cautious now. Moody rolled his eyes, he knew the boy shouldn't follow. Nearly everyone groaned. They didn't know what would happen now.****

Though the darkness had swallowed her whole, her burnished image was still imprinted on his retinas; it obscured his vision, brightening when he lowered his eyelids, disorienting him. Now fear came: Her presence had meant safety.

A lot of people nodded, Lily allowed a small sad smile. She wished her presence had meant safety. Not just the form her patronus took.****

"Lumos!" he whispered, and the wand-tip ignited.

The imprint of the doe faded away with every blink of his eyes as he stood there, listening to the sounds of the forest, to distant crackles of twigs, soft swishes of snow. Was he about to be attacked? Had she enticed him into an ambush? Was he imagining that somebody stood beyond the reach of the wandlight, watching him?

"I really hope not." A lot of people moaned _But who sent it?_****

He held the wand higher. Nobody ran out at him, no flash of green light burst from behind a tree. Why, then, had she led him to this spot?

Something gleamed in the light of the wand, and Harry spun about, but all that was there was a small, frozen pool, its black, cracked surface glittering as he raised his wand higher to examine it.

He moved forward rather cautiously and looked down. The ice reflected his distorted shadow and the beam of wandlight, but deep below the thick, misty gray carapace, something else glinted. A great silver cross...

Lily, Remus, and Minerva gasped. And Dumbledore's eyes merrily twinkled. The Gryffindor sword … was Harry even a little lucky for this to be true? They really hope it would be. Everyone looked at them wondering, but they got waved away.****

His heart skipped into his mouth: He dropped to his knees at the pool's edge and angled the wand so as to flood the bottom of the pool with as much light as possible. A glint of deep red...It was a sword with glittering rubies in its hilt...The sword of Gryffindor was lying at the bottom of the forest pool.

The ones who didn't know gasped or smiled a little. So the boy had a bit of luck. Only a few noted that it was 'at the bottom of the forest pool'****

Barely breathing, he stared down at it. How was this possible? How could it have come to be lying in a forest pool, this close to the place where they were camping? Had some unknown magic drawn Hermione to this spot, or was the doe, which he had taken to be a Patronus, some kind of guardian of the pool? Or had the sword been put into the pool after they had arrived, precisely because they were here? In which case, where was the person who wanted to pass it to Harry? 

"Someone's one their side." Remus smiled but Moody had to ruin everyone's happy mood.

"It also means someone knows where they are staying, one of side or not … if someone knows, anyone could know." Some never paid any attention to him, not wanting their good mood demolished. But some thought he had a point, and they didn't like it.

**Again he directed the wand at the surrounding trees and bushes, searching for a human outline, for the glint of an eye, but he could not see anyone there. All the same, a little more fear leavened his exhilaration as he returned his attention to the sword reposing upon the bottom of the frozen pool.**

He pointed the wand at the silvery shape and murmured, "Accio Sword."

It did not stir. He had not expected it to. If it had been that easy the sword would have lain on the ground for him to pick up, not in the depths of a frozen pool. 

Lily mentally groaned, she just realized what he was going to need to do, and by the sounds or moans and sighs in the room so had a few people. Nothing was ever easy for him.

**He set off around the circle of ice, thinking hard about the last time the sword had delivered itself to him. He had been in terrible danger then, and had asked for help.**

"Help," he murmured, but the sword remained upon the pool bottom, indifferent, motionless.

"That's because he's not in danger now." Frank said matter-of-factly. ****

What was it, Harry asked himself (walking again), that Dumbledore had told him the last time he had retrieved the sword? Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat. And what were the qualities that defined a Gryffindor? A small voice inside Harry's head answered him: Their daring nerve and chivalry set Gryffindor apart.

Sirius closed his eyes. Of course, Harry would need to jump in. That was just typical. ****

Harry stopped walking and let out a long sigh, his smoky breath dispersing rapidly upon the frozen air. He knew what he had to do. If he was honest with himself, he had thought it might come to this from the moment he had spotted the sword through the ice.

Molly moaned "But he'll get a cold" everyone just sighed. Harry had much more than a cold wrong with him before.****

He glanced around at the surrounding trees again, but was convinced now that nobody was going to attack him. They had had their chance as he walked alone through the forest, had had plenty of opportunity as he examined the pool. The only reason to delay at this point was because the immediate prospect was so deeply uninviting.

Even Sirius nodded, and he was known to be reckless. But jumping in to a frozen pool, was uninviting for anyone.

**With fumbling fingers Harry started to remove his many layers of clothing. Where "chivalry" entered into this, he thought ruefully, he was not entirely sure, unless it counted as chivalrous that he was not calling for Hermione to do it in his stead.**

Sirius and James snickered a little, but anyone could tell James was actually worried about Harry jumping in to the pool.****

An owl hooted somewhere as he stripped off, and he thought with a pang of Hedwig. 

"She was a nice owl too." Lily muttered. She liked the owl she had only heard about on a few occasions but she sounded nice, and she had an attitude.

**He was shivering now, his teeth chattering horribly, and yet he continued to strip off until at last he stood there in his underwear, barefooted in the snow. He placed the pouch containing his wand, his mother's letter, the shard of Sirius's mirror, and the old Snitch on top of his clothes, then he pointed Hermione's wand at the ice.**

"Diffindo."

It cracked with a sound like a bullet in the silence. The surface of the pool broke and chunks of dark ice rocked on the ruffled water. As far as Harry could judge, it was not deep, but to retrieve the sword he would have to submerge himself completely.

Lily moaned, why. ****

Contemplating the task ahead would not make it easier or the water warmer. He stepped to the pool's edge and placed Hermione's wand on the ground still lit.

"No, he should take it with him" Frank said a few nodded but some agreed with Harry. He could lose that wand.

** Then, trying not to imagine how much colder he was about to become or how violently he would soon be shivering, he jumped.**

Every pore of his body screamed in protest. The very air in his lungs seemed to freeze solid as he was submerged to his shoulders in the frozen water. He could hardly breathe: trembling so violently the water lapped over the edges of the pool, he felt for the blade with his numb feet. He only wanted to dive once.

"I would really hate to be Harry right now" Sirius said to himself. James glared at him, but he just grinned back.****

Harry put off the moment of total submersion from second to second, gasping and shaking, until he told himself that it must be done, gathered all his courage, and dived.

The cold was agony: It attacked him like fire. His brain itself seemed to have frozen as he pushed through the dark water to the bottom and reached out, groping for the sword. His fingers closed around the hilt; he pulled it upward.

A lot of people yelled "Yes."****

Then something closed tight around his neck. He thought of water weeds, though nothing had brushed him as he dived, and raised his hand to free himself. It was not weed: The chain of the Horcrux had tightened and was slowly constricting his windpipe.

Everyone's eyes widened including Dumbledore's "No" ****

Harry kicked out wildly, trying to push himself back to the surface, but merely propelled himself into the rocky side of the pool. Thrashing, suffocating, he scrabbled at the strangling chain, his frozen fingers unable to loosen it, and now little lights were popping inside his head, and he was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely Death's...

_Just like the children's tale. _Alice thought, she had read that tale to Neville, to get him to sleep only last week.****

Choking and retching, soaking and colder than he had ever been in his life, he came to facedown in the snow. 

"Hermione must have noticed, he'd left" Remus said letting out a breath of relief.

Lily nodded again thinking _Thank Merlin for that girl._

**Somewhere, close by, another person was panting and coughing and staggering around, as she had come when the snake attacked...Yet it did not sound like her, not with those deep coughs, no judging by the weight of the footsteps...**

Everyone leaned forward, who was it then if it wasn't Hermione. There wasn't anyone else there … unless it's who sent the doe? They hoped it was, then they would find out. ****

Harry had no strength to lift his head and see his savior's identity. All he could do was raise a shaking hand to his throat and feel the place where the locket had cut tightly into his flesh. It was gone. Someone had cut him free. Then a panting voice spoke from over his head.

"Are - you - mental?"

A few people exchanged a look. They had read about someone who talked like that. Molly and Arthur exchanged hopeful looks. ****

Nothing but the shock of hearing that voice could have given Harry the strength to get up. Shivering violently, he staggered to his feet. There before him stood Ron, fully dressed but drenched to the skin, his hair plastered to his face, the sword of Gryffindor in one hand and the Horcrux dangling from its broken chain in the other.

"RON" Molly yelled happily. Arthur beamed to hear about his son … he hoped he was back, some people weren't so happy though. They hadn't forgotten what Ron had done. Lily was happy though, she forgave him, he'd just saved Harry's life. She hoped him and Harry were back together now. ****

"Why the hell," panted Ron, holding up the Horcrux, which swung backward and forward on its shortened chain in some parody of hypnosis, "didn't you take the thing off before you dived?"

A few nodded, but they couldn't really say anything since they didn't think about that either.****

Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with Ron's reappearance; he could not believe it. Shuddering with cold, he caught up the pile of clothes still lying at the water's edge and began to pull them on. As he dragged sweater after sweater over his head, Harry stared at Ron, half expecting him to have disappeared every time he lost sight of him, and yet he had to be real: He had just dived into the pool, he had saved Harry's life.

"He's unfortunately real," Sirius said stubbornly but very quietly, he didn't want to upset the Weasleys. He hadn't forgiven Ron. ****

"It was y-you?" Harry said at last, his teeth chattering, his voice weaker than usual due to his near-strangulation.

"Well, yeah," said Ron, looking slightly confused.

"Y-you cast that doe?"

"What? No, of course not! I thought it was you doing it!"

"Great, we still don't know who it was" Moody grunted****

"My Patronus is a stag."

"Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers."

Sirius's lips twitched, but he was determined not to laugh. Other's did though.****

Harry put Hagrid's pouch back around his neck, pulled on a final sweater, stooped to pick up Hermione's wand, and faced Ron again.

"How come you're here?"

Apparently Ron had hoped that this point would come up later, if at all.

"Well, I've - you know - I've come back. If -" He cleared his throat. "You know. You still want me."

"Of course they want you Ron." Arthur smiled, he and Molly looked happier that Ron was back. A few others did too, but some people, mostly Sirius were being stubborn and not forgiving him.****

There was a pause, in which the subject of Ron's departure seemed to rise like a wall between them. Yet he was here. He had returned. He had just saved Harry's life.

Ron looked down at his hands. He seemed momentarily surprised to see the things he was holding.

"Oh yeah, I got it out," he said, rather unnecessarily, holding up the sword for Harry's inspection. "That's why you jumped in, right?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, _obviously_. James glared at him … he wasn't happy with Ron but if Harry forgave him, then he forgave him.****

"Yeah," said Harry. "But I don't understand. How did you get here? How did you find us?"

"Long story," said Ron. "I've been looking for you for hours, it's a big forest, isn't it? And I was just thinking I'd have to go kip under a tree and wait for morning when I saw that dear coming and you following."

"So he didn't see anything else?" Molly asked, she didn't like someone unknown out there, even if they were on their side.

"Seems not." Remus replied. "But at least their protections work, he couldn't see them … but how did he know what forest they were in?"

Moody answered back "That what we want to know." Remus looked a little put out, but never said anything.****

"You didn't see anyone else?"

"No," said Ron. "I -"

**But he hesitated, glancing at two trees growing close together some yards away.**

"I did think I saw something move over there, but I was running to the pool at the time, because you'd gone in and you hadn't come up, so I wasn't going to make a detour to - hey!"

**Harry was already hurrying to the place that Ron had indicated. The two oaks grew close together; there was a gap of only a few inches between the trunks at eye level, an ideal place to see but not be seen. The ground around the roots, however, was free of snow, and Harry could see no sign of footprints. **

"Of course not, that would have been too easy." Lily said sarcastically, James even chuckled a little.

**He walked back to where Ron stood waiting, still holding the sword and the Horcrux.**

"Anything there?" Ron asked.

"No," said Harry.

"So how did the sword get in that pool?"

"Whoever cast the Patronus must have put it there."

They both looked at the ornate silver sword, its rubied hilt glinting a little in the light from Hermione's wand.

"You reckon this is the real one?" asked Ron.

"I must be, the way it acted when he got a hold of the sword" Marlene added, to everyone's doubtful looks. They looked more convinced now.****

"One way to find out, isn't there?" said Harry.

The Horcrux was still swinging from Ron's hand. The locket was twitching slightly. Harry knew that the thing inside it was agitated again. It had sensed the presence of the sword and had tried to kill Harry rather than let him possess it.

"Just as evil as the git that made it" Sirius muttered.

**Now was not the time for long discussions; now was the moment to destroy once and for all. Harry looked around, holding Hermione's wand high, and saw the place: a flattish rock lying in the shadow of a sycamore tree.**

"Come here." he said and he led the way, brushed snow from the rock's surface, and held out his hand for the Horcrux. When Ron offered the sword, however, Harry shook his head.

"No you should do it."

Dumbledore smiled, it looked like he had taught Harry something after all … no one else in the room understood, this was complicated magic. ****

"Me?" said Ron, looking shocked. "Why?"

"Because you got the sword out of the pool. I think it's supposed to be you."

He was not being kind or generous. As certainly as he had known that the doe was benign, he knew that Ron had to be the one to wield the sword. Dumbledore had at least taught Harry something about certain kinds of magic, of the incalculable power of certain acts.

Molly looked a little concerned about Ron doing it. "Do you think he's right?"

Dumbledore nodded and allowed a little half-smile "Yes, I think he is" a few people looked confused to why it had to be Ron "It's very complicated magic, but it seems Harry's learned about it over the years, and I have been the one teaching him." ****

"I'm going to open it," said Harry, "and you will stab it. Straightaway okay? Because whatever's in there will put up a fight. The bit of Riddle in the Diary tried to kill me."

Molly groaned a little, what if this thing tried to kill her boy? What if it actually did kill her boy? She didn't want to think about, she just hoped they all got out of the war safe.****

"How are you going to open it?" asked Ron. He looked terrified

** "I'm going to ask it to open, using Parseltongue," said Harry. **

"Of course" a few said, sounding as if they thought it was obvious now.

"Well I think Parseltongue does have advantages." James laughed a little, he hadn't been too sure what to think about Harry's ability.

**The answer came so readily to his lips that thought that he had always known it deep down. Perhaps it had taken his recent encounter with Nagini to make him realize it. He looked at the serpentine S, inlaid with glittering green stones: It was easy to visualize it as a miniscule snake, curled upon the cold rock.**

"No!" said Ron. "Don't open it! I'm serious!"

"Why not?" asked Harry. "Let's get rid of the damn thing, it's been months -"

Everyone nodded, they wanted that thing gone aswell.****

"I can't, Harry, I'm serious - you do it -"

"Come on Ron, you can do it" Lily and Molly encouraged. Arthur smiled and nodded, he believed his son could do it.****

"But why?"

"Because that thing's bad for me!" said Ron, backing away from the locket on the rock. "I can't handle it! I'm not making excuses, for what I was like, but it affects me worse than it affects you and Hermione, it made me think stuff - stuff that I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse. I can't explain it, and then I'd take it off and I'd get my head straight again, and then I'd have to put the effing thing back on - I can't do it Harry!"

A lot of people felt a little bad, if that's the way the Horcrux affected them, well they didn't know how it would feel … but they guessed it sort of explained why he had run off, not that it covers it but still. ****

He had backed away, the sword dragging at his side, shaking his head.

"You can do it," said Harry, "you can! You've just got the sword, I know it's supposed to be you who uses it. Please just get rid of it Ron."

Dumbledore bowed his head, he's proud of Harry to understand it had to be him.****

The sound of his name seemed to act like a stimulant. Ron swallowed, then still breathing hard through his long nose, moved back toward the rock.

"Tell me when," he croaked.

A lot of people smiled encouragingly, even though Ron couldn't see them.****

"On three," said Harry, looking back down at the locket and narrowing his eyes, concentrating on the letter S, imagining a serpent, while the contents of the locket rattled like a trapped cockroach. It would have been easy to pity it, except that the cut around Harry's neck still burned.

"One... two... three...open."

The last word came as a hiss and a snarl and the golden doors of the locket swung wide open with a little click.

A lot of people cheered at that, finally they could destroy it now.****

Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle's eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and slit-pupiled "Stab," said Harry, holding the locket steady on the rock.

Ron raised the sword in his shaking hands: The point dangled over the frantically swiveling eyes, and Harry gripped the locket tightly, bracing himself, already imagining blood pouring from the empty windows.

Then a voice hissed from out the Horcrux.

"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."

"Wait what?" Sirius asked confused … "What's it talking about." Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment until he answered.

"It's playing against Ron's fears, or trying to get inside his head. It's playing him" a lot of people looked terrified at that, and for Ron.****

"Don't listen to it!" Harry said harshly. "Stab it!"

"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible..."

A lot of people didn't know if they wanted to know all this, it was going in to Ron's personal thoughts, but then again … isn't that what they are doing to Harry? ****

"Stab!" shouted Harry, his voice echoed off the surrounding trees, the sword point trembled, and Ron gazed down into Riddle's eyes.

"Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter... Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend... Second best, always, eternally overshadowed..."

"No" Molly said "That's not true!"

Arthur placed a hand on her arm, "I know dear, but it's Ron's fears." A lot looked shocked, they could all tell that wasn't true … no of that was true.****

"Ron, stab it now!" Harry bellowed: He could feel the locket quivering in the grip and was scared of what was coming. Ron raised the sword still higher, and as he did so, Riddle's eyes gleamed scarlet.

Out of the locket's two windows, out of the eyes, there bloomed like two grotesque bubbles, the heads of Harry and Hermione, weirdly distorted.

"I don't like this" Sirius muttered to himself, he was too interested in the book to notice the looks he got, he didn't think _that_ Harry and Hermione would be nice to Ron.****

Ron yelled in shock and backed away as the figures blossomed out of the locket, first chests, then waists, then legs, until they stood in the locket, side by side like trees with a common root, swaying over Ron and the real Harry, who had snatched his fingers away from the locket as it burned, suddenly, white-hot.

"Ron!" he shouted, but the Riddle-Harry was now speaking with Voldemort's voice and Ron was gazing, mesmerized, into its face.

"It's possessing him … he's possessing him" Molly said a little breathless. She had tears but she wasn't crying. She was in too much shock to cry.****

"Why return? We were better without you, happier without you, glad of your absence... We laughed at your stupidity, your cowardice, your presumption -"

"That's not true" it was now Sirius shouting, he felt closer to Ron again, by hearing his fears … he felt like he understood him more.

**"Presumption!" echoed the Riddle-Hermione, who was more beautiful and yet more terrible than the real Hermione: She swayed, cackling, before Ron, who looked horrified, yet transfixed, the sword hanging pointlessly at his side. "Who could look at you, who would ever look at you, beside Harry Potter? What have you ever done, compared with the Chosen One? What are you, compared with the Boy Who Lived?"**

A lot of people closed their eyes, they had never really thought of that, but that would be quite a challenge for Ron, he would always think Harry was better than him. It would be hard having a best friend like Harry.****

"Ron, stab it, STAB IT!" Harry yelled, but Ron did not move. His eyes were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Hermione were reflected in them, their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted in an evil duet.

"Your mother confessed," sneered Riddle-Harry, while Riddle-Hermione jeered, "that she would have preferred me as a son, would be glad to exchange..."

"I bet I did no such things" Molly said appalled, she would never say that. ****

"Who wouldn't prefer him, what woman would take you, you are nothing, nothing, nothing to him," crooned Riddle-Hermione, and she stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: Their lips met.

Some people made faces, while hearing Harry's thoughts; they had just made an image of Harry and Hermione as near-brother/sister. They hadn't thought of them this way, it just didn't feel right … but this is what Ron sees, this is his fears.****

On the ground in front of them, Ron's face filled with anguish. he raised the sword high, his arms shaking.  
  
**"Do it, Ron!" Harry yelled.**

Ron looked toward him, and Harry thought he saw a trace of scarlet in his eyes.

A few gasped a little, they didn't want Ron to attack Harry.****

"Ron -?"

The sword flashed, plunged: Harry threw himself out of the way, there as a clang of metal and a long, drawn-out scream. Harry whirled around, slipping in the snow, wand held ready to defend himself, but there was nothing to fight.

They let out a breath, at least Ron realized what had happened.****

The monstrous versions of himself and Hermione were gone: There was only Ron, standing there with the sword held slackly in his hand, looking down at the shattered remains of the locket on the flat rock.

Slowly, Harry walked back to him, hardly knowing what to say or do. Ron was breathing heavily: His eyes were no longer red at all, but their normal blue: they were also wet.

_Poor Ron_ Lily thought sadly, that would be hard, if you thought your love and your best friend were in love with each other, that would be like her and Sirius in love … she knew how heartbreaking that would be for James. It was just the same Ron.****

Harry stooped, pretending he had not seen, and picked up the broken Horcrux. 

James and Sirius shared a look _Good friend_

**Ron had pierced the glass in both windows: Riddle's eyes were gone, and the stained silk lining of the locket was smoking slightly. The thing that had lived in the Horcrux had vanished; torturing Ron had been its final act. The sword clanged as Ron dropped it. He had sunk to his knees, his head in his arms. He was shaking, but not, Harry realized, from cold. **

Molly moaned, she wanted to comfort her son, but Harry was there and soon Hermione would be. She guessed they would help him instead.

**Harry crammed the broken locket into his pocket, knelt down beside Ron, and placed a hand cautiously on his shoulder. He took it as a good sign that Ron did not throw it off.**

"After you left," he said in a low voice, grateful for the fact that Ron's face was hidden, "she cried for a week. Probably longer, only she didn't want me to see. There were loads of nights when we never even spoke to each other. With you gone..."

He could not finish; it was now that Ron was here again that Harry fully realized how much his absence had cost them.

"He's your brother" James said as if it was the most simple thing in the world "And brothers love one another, no matter what" he smiled at Remus and Sirius. They were his brothers.****

"She's like my sister," he went on. "I love her like a sister and I reckon that she feels the same way about me. It's always been like that. I thought you knew."

"He was just doubting" Arthur answered for Ron.****

Ron did not respond, but turned his face away from Harry and wiped his nose noisily on his sleeve. Harry got to his feet again and walked to where Ron's enormous rucksack lay yards away, discarded as Ron had run toward the pool to save Harry from drowning. He hoisted it onto his own back and walked back to Ron, who clambered to his feet as Harry approached, eyes bloodshot but otherwise composed.

"I'm sorry," he said in a thick voice. "I'm sorry I left. I know I was a - a -"

He looked around at the darkness, as if hoping a bad enough word would swoop down upon him and claim him.

Sirius couldn't help it, he starting chucking a little.****

"You've sort of made up for it tonight," said Harry. "Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life."

"That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was," Ron mumbled.

"Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was" said Harry. "I've been trying to tell you that for years."

"It's not cool, it's bloody dangerous" Lily and Molly both huffed.****

Simultaneously they walked forward and hugged, Harry gripping the still-sopping back of Ron's jacket.

Sirius sighed, he guess he could forgive Ron. While James and everyone else smiled.****

"And now," said Harry as they broke apart, "all we've got to do is find that tent again."

But it was not difficult. Though the walk through the dark forest with the doe had seemed lengthy, with Ron by his side, the journey back seemed to take a surprisingly short time. Harry could not wait to wake Hermione, and it was with quickening excitement that he entered the tent, Ron lagging a little behind him.

Lily realized something, she didn't think Hermione was going to be all that happy to see Ron. After what he'd done anyway.****

It was gloriously warm after the pool and the forest, the only illumination the bluebell flames still shimmering in a bowl on the floor. Hermione was fast asleep, curled up under her blankets, and did not move until Harry had said her name several times.

"Hermione!"

She stirred, then sat up quickly, pushing her hair out of her face.

"What's wrong? Harry? Are you all right?"

"It's okay, everything's fine. More than fine, I'm great. There's someone here."

"Don't tell her that" Marlene said, that would give the poor girl a heart attack.****

"What do you mean? Who -?"

She saw Ron, who stood there holding the sword and dripping onto the threadbare carpet. Harry backed into a shadowy corner, slipped off Ron's rucksack, and attempted to blend in with the canvas.

Hermione slid out of her bunk and moved like a sleepwalker toward Ron, her eyes upon his pale face. She stopped right in front of him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide. Ron gave a weak hopeful smile and half raised his arms.

Hermione launched herself forward and started punching every inch of him that she could reach.

Sirius, James and a few others burst out laughing, they weren't expecting it. Even thought James and Sirius should considering that's what Lily would have done.

"I love this girl." Sirius gasped****

"Ouch - ow - gerroff! What the -? Hermione - OW!"

"You - complete - arse - Ronald - Weasley!"

She punctuated every word with a blow: Ron backed away, shielding his head as Hermione advanced.

"That remind me of someone" Remus chuckled, half glancing at James, causing everyone to laugh, including Lily. But James just huffed.****

"You - crawl - back - here - after - weeks - and - weeks - oh, where's my wand?"

"Don't give it to her Harry" James exclaimed suddenly, Ron was lucky Hermione didn't have her wand. ****

She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry's hands and he reacted instinctively.

"Protego!"

The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione. The force of it knocked her backward onto the floor. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she lept up again.

A few laughed again, they could imagine that.****

"Hermione!" said Harry. "Calm -"

"Wrong thing to say" Alice laughed, she had said that Lily before, when attacking James. ****

"I will not calm down!" she screamed. Never before had he seen her lose control like this; she looked quite demented. "Give me back my wand! Give it back to me!"

"Hermione, will you please -"

"Don't you tell me what do, Harry Potter!" she screeched. "Don't you dare! Give it back now! And YOU!"

She was pointing at Ron in dire accusation: It was like a malediction, and Harry could not blame Ron for retreating several steps.

"Neither can I" James whispered in a sympathetic voice, some heard him and Lily rolled her eyes, he was being over dramatic. ****

"I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back"

"I know," Ron said, "Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really -"

"Oh, you're sorry!"

She laughed a high-pitched, out-of-control sound; Ron looked at Harry for help, but Harry merely grimaced his helplessness.

Sirius nodded, knowing the feeling.****

"You came back after weeks - weeks - and you think it's all going to be all right if you just say sorry?"

"Well, what else can I say?" Ron shouted, and Harry was glad that Ron was fighting back.

"You go Ron" Frank laughed, he was finding his very amusing.****

"Oh, I don't know!" yelled Hermione with awful sarcasm. "Rack your brains, Ron, that should only take a couple of seconds -"

"Oh" was muttered sympathetically around the table. That was a low blow. ****

"Hermione," interjected Harry, who considered this a low blow, "he just saved my -"

"I don't care!" she screamed. "I don't care what he's done! Weeks and weeks, we could have been dead for all he knew –"

"I knew you weren't dead!" bellowed Ron, drowning her voice for the first time, and approaching as close as he could with the Shield Charm between them. "Harry's all over the Prophet, all over the radio, they're looking for you everywhere, all these rumors and mental stories, I knew I'd hear straight off if you were dead, you don't know what it's been like -"

"What it's been like for you?" 

"He really should not have said that" Arthur gulped, sometimes Hermione reminded him of Molly.****

Her voice was not so shrill only bats would be able to hear it soon, but she had reached a level of indignation that rendered her temporarily speechless, and Ron seized his opportunity.

"I wanted to come back the minute I'd Disapparated, but I walked straight into a gang of Snatchers, Hermione, and I couldn't go anywhere!"

"They are idiots." Moody said leaning back, the Ministry were really taking things too far now, "Snatchers, are groups of people who usually round-up criminals but it sounds they are rounding up more than criminals now a days. They work for the Ministry," ****

"A gang of what?" asked Harry, as Hermione threw herself down into a chair with her arms and legs crossed so tightly it seemed unlikely that she would unravel them for several years.

"Snatchers," said Ron. "They're everywhere - gangs trying to earn gold by rounding up Muggle-borns and blood traitors, there's a reward from the Ministry for everyone captured. I was on my own and I look like I might be school age; they got really excited, thought I was a Muggle-born in hiding. I had to talk fast to get out of being dragged to the Ministry."

"That's shocking" Lily screeched. "That's just totally unfair, in every way." Moody nodded, he agreed but there was nothing they could do.****

"What did you say to them?"

"Told them I was Stan Shunpike. First person I could think of."

"Isn't he a Death Eater?" Remus asked, remembering the earlier chapters, most shrugged, they couldn't remember.****

"And they believed that?"

"They weren't the brightest. One of them was definitely part troll, the smell of him..."

Sirius laughed, "Nice Ron" he was really warming up to Ron again.****

Ron glanced at Hermione, clearly hopeful she might soften at this small instance of humor, but her expression remained stony above her tightly knotted limbs.

Sirius then sighed in disappointment.****

"Anyway, they had a row about whether I was Stan or not. It was a bit pathetic to be honest, but there were still five of them and only one of me, and they'd taken my wand. Then two of them got into a fight and while the others were distracted I managed to hit the one holding me in the stomach, grabbed his wand, Disarmed the bloke holding mine, and Disapparated. I didn't do it so well. Splinched myself again" - Ron held up his right hand to show two missing fingernails: Hermione raised her eyebrows coldly - "and I came out miles from where you were. By the time I got back to that bit of riverbank where we'd been... you were gone."

"At least he didn't mean to stay away all that time."****

"Gosh, what a gripping story," Hermione said in the lofty voice she adopted when wishing to wound. 

"She's really mad at him, isn't she?" Frank said surprised, he didn't expect her to be this mad."

**"You must have been simply terrified. Meanwhile we went to Godric's Hollow and, let's think, what happened there, Harry? Oh yes, You-Know-Who's snake turned up, it nearly killed both of us, and then You-Know-Who himself arrived and missed us by about a second."**

A few nodded, she had point, thought Ron wasn't really trying to stay away, he wanted to come back.****

"What?" Ron said, gaping from her to Harry, but Hermione ignored him.

"Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?"

A few chuckled at her sarcasm. Even despite the situation, it was just funny to hear her insults, since she didn't do them often.****

"Hermione," said Harry quietly, "Ron just saved my life."

She appeared not to have heard him.

"One thing I would like to know, though," she said, fixing her eyes on a spot a foot over Ron's head. "How exactly did you find us tonight? That's important. Once we know, we'll be able to make sure we're not visited by anyone else we don't want to see."

"Hermione" Remus said calmly, as if willing her to listen to reason "Don't blame him, and you really don't mean that" no one pointed out he was in fact talking to a book, since they had all done it.****

Ron glared at her, then pulled a small silver object from his jeans pocket.

"This."

She had to look at Ron to see what he was showing them.

"The Deluminator?" she asked, so surprised she forgot to look cold and fierce.

Everyone else looked surprised to, even Dumbledore, as he had not made it do anything other than turn lights on and off.****

"It doesn't just turn the lights on and off," said Ron. "I don't know how it works or why it happened then and not any other time, because I've been wanting to come back ever since I left. But I was listening to the radio really early on Christmas morning and I heard... I heard you."

He was looking at Hermione.

"You heard me on the radio?" she asked incredulously.

"No, I heard you coming out of my pocket. Your voice," he held up the Deluminator again, "came out of this."

"What?" James asked Dumbledore confused

"I assure, I don't know either." He replied, which made other people even more interested.****

"And what exactly did I say?" asked Hermione, her tone somewhere between skepticism and curiosity.

"My name. 'Ron.' And you said... something about a wand..."

Hermione turned a fiery shade of scarlet. Harry remembered: it had been the first time Ron's name had been said aloud by either of them since the day he had left; Hermione had mentioned it when talking about repairing Harry's wand.

"It's tells him when they are talking about him?" Sirius asked torn between amusement and confusion

"It appears so." Dumbledore answered with a twinkle in his eyes.

Sirius let out a bark of a laugh "Well, that's handy" some chuckled with him, but some rolled their eyes.****

"So I took it out," Ron went on, looking at the Deluminator, "and it didn't seem different or anything, but I was sure I'd heard you. So I clicked it. And the light went out in my room, but another light appeared right outside the window."

Ron raised his empty hand and pointed in front of him, his eyes focused on something neither Harry nor Hermione could see.

"It was a ball of light, kind of pulsing, and bluish, like that light you get around a Portkey, you know?"

"Yeah," said Harry and Hermione together automatically.

"I knew this was it," said Ron. "I grabbed my stuff and packed it, then I put on my rucksack and went out into the garden."

"The little ball of light was hovering there, waiting for me, and when I came out it bobbed along a bit and I followed it behind the shed and then it... well, it went inside me."

"Excuse me?" Minerva asked, thinking she had heard wrong …

**"Sorry?" said Harry, sure he had not heard correctly.**

She nodded she knew what he meant.****

"It sort of floated toward me," said Ron, illustrating the movement with his free index finger, "right to my chest, and then - it just went straight through. It was here," he touched a point close to his heard, "I could feel it, it was hot. And once it was inside me, I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew it would take me where I needed to go. So I Disapparated and came out on the side of a hill. There was snow everywhere..."

"We were there," said Harry. "We spent two nights there, and the second night I kept thinking I could hear someone moving around in the dark and calling out!"

"It was Ron" most shouted, a little excited, and relieved no one was actually after them****

"Yeah, well, that would've been me," said Ron. "Your protective spells work, anyway, because I couldn't see you and I couldn't hear you. I was sure you were around, though, so in the end I got in my sleeping bag and waited for one of you to appear. I thought you'd have to show yourselves when you packed up the tent."

"No, actually," said Hermione. "We've been Disapparating under the Invisibility Cloak as an extra precaution. And we left really early, because as Harry says, we'd heard somebody blundering around."

"Well, I stayed on that hill all day," said Ron. "I kept hoping you'd appear. But when it started to get dark I knew I must have missed you, so I clicked the Deluminator again, the blue light came out and went inside me, and I Disapparated and arrived here in these woods. I still couldn't see you, so I just had to hope one of you would show yourselves in the end - and Harry did. Well, I saw the doe first, obviously."

"You saw the what?" said Hermione sharply.

"She doesn't know about all that yet" Alice reminded everyone****

They explained what had happened and as the story of the silver doe and the sword in the pool unfolded, Hermione frowned form one to the other of them, concentrating so hard she forgot to keep her limbs locked together.

"But it must have been a Patronus!" she said. "Couldn't you see who was casting it? Didn't you see anyone? And it led you to the sword! I can't believe this! Then what happened?"

Ron explained how he had watched Harry jump into the pool, and had waited for him to resurface; how he had realized that something was wrong, dived in, and saved Harry, then returned for the sword. He got as far as the opening of the locket, then hesitated, and Harry cut in.

"- and Ron stabbed it with the sword."

"And... and it went? Just like that?" she whispered.

"Well, it - it screamed," said Harry with half a glance at Ron. "Here."

"Good friend" a lot of people said with a smile, that was nice of Harry.****

He threw the locket into her lap; gingerly she picked it up and examined its punctured windows.

Deciding that it was at last safe to do so, Harry removed the Shield Charm with a wave of Hermione's wand and turned to Ron.

"Did you just say now that you got away from the snatchers with a spare wand?"

"Oh good." Molly smiled, a lot was going better****

"What?" said Ron, who had been watching Hermione examining the locket. "Oh - oh yeah."

He tugged open a buckle on his rucksack and pulled a short dark wand out of his pocket. "Here, I figured it's always handy to have a backup."

"Good job Weasley" Moody grunted. Dumbledore smiled, it seemed now Ron was back, and everything would sort itself out.****

"You were right," said Harry, holding out his hand. "Mine's broken."

"You're kidding?" Ron said, but at that moment Hermione got to her feet, and he looked apprehensive again.

Hermione put the vanquished Horcrux into the beaded bag, then climbed back into her bed and settled down without another word.

Ron passed Harry the new wand.

"About the best you could hope for, I think," murmured Harry.

"Yeah" a lot muttered, but some shouldn't amused.****

"Yeah," said Ron. "Could've been worse. Remember those birds she set on me?"

"I still haven't ruled it out," came Hermione's muffled voice from beneath her blankets, but Harry saw Ron smiling slightly as he pulled his maroon pajamas out of his rucksack.

Lily and Molly cooed. It was nice to see Ron back. Everyone was smiling, it seemed like everything else was forgotten, everything about Dumbledore, about Godric's Hollow. Everything was perfect now they were back to three.


End file.
